Star vs the Forces of Oneshots
by TheBigPotatoBoss
Summary: A bunch of oneshots and maybe multi-parters. Mainly adventures or ideas I want to write. Any feedback or ideas are appreciated. All stories up for adoption.
1. The Calling

The Calling

* * *

Marco Diaz was preparing for "Friendship Thursday" with Star tonight. He was making his "Super Awesome Nachos" while waiting for Star to come home. Janna had wanted to show Star so weird occult stuff. Marco had also been invited to do so, but found no interest in the weird things that Janna liked. His parents were gone on a business trip for the time being and gave him enough money to buy groceries. He yawned and stretched as sleepiness hit him. It was always boring without Star, she could even make something as mundane as homework fun.

He put the nachos on the plate and poured liquid cheese onto them. He looked at the clock on the stove. It was already five o'clock and Star was still nowhere to be found. A thumping noise came from upstairs. Marco blinked in confusion.

' _Did she already come back_?' he thought to himself. He had neither seen nor heard the front door open and it was unlike Star to go straight to her room without a greeting. Maybe she was sick, that would explain why. Another thump was heard from upstairs. If that was Star, what on Earth was she doing to make that noise?

Marco was confused and curious. He decided to go to Star's room to make sure whether or not it was really her. Reaching his destination, he knocked on the door.

"Star?" he asked. There was no response. Marco knocked on the door a few more times.

"Star, are you in there?" he asked again. Again, there was no response. He twisted the doorknob and found that it was unlocked.

"I'm coming in, okay?" he announced. Slowly, he opened the door and looked around. The room was dark and no sign of Star was to be found. Marco flipped the light switch and there was light. He entered the room looked around him. Usually, he would hear her giggling if she was hiding from him. There was nothing in this room but silence.

' _Maybe it's just my imagination,_ ' he thought to himself. Suddenly, the lights turned off and the door slammed shut. Marco rushed to the exit and turned and twisted the doorknob. It was stuck, like it had been locked from the other side.

"Star, if this is a joke, it isn't funny!" Marco yelled. He turned his head across the area for another escape. He had never noticed it before, but Star's room did not have windows like his did. Star's room only had windows at the top of the stairs. Running through the room in darkness, he tripped on something and fell.

"Star!" he yelled one more time. Unknown to him, the interdimensional mirror turned on and a strange gurgling noise filled the room. Marco didn't know why, but he was struggling to do anything. He tried to move his legs, but felt like he didn't have the strength to. He was also experiencing some sort of… weird headache. His mind was assaulted with thousands of thoughts at a single moment. His breath began to become labored. Marco clutched his head and closed his eyes and hoped the pain would subside soon.

The mirror showed the image of Toffee on it. "Star's not here," the lizard said. "It's just you and me." Marco turned towards the mirror in shock. Why was _he_ here, and now of all times?

"Hello. Marco Diaz, was it?" said Toffee. "What a _surprise_ to see you again, no?" Marco gritted his teeth and glared at the suited monster. He was going to fight against whatever Toffee was doing to him.

"Oh, are you struggling? How cute. But I should warn you that no matter what you do, you're won't be able to win this battle. So why even try?" True to the monster's words, Marco could feel himself losing. He was sweating, the feeling of his headache made him want to throw up, and he could feel his body refusing to move more and more.

' _No, I have to keep on fighting_ ,' he thought. ' _I have to fight for Star!_ ' Unfortunately, those thoughts proved to be useless as he felt himself getting closer and closer to what he could only describe as death itself.

"Soon, you will fall unconscious and then I will be able to control your body," explained Toffee. "I'm going to give you and Star Butterfly a show that the two of you won't be able to forget. And I sincerely do hope you enjoy the view, Marco. You are getting the best seat in the theater, after all." Marco tried to struggle even more, but it was now useless. All his strength had been sapped and his eyes began to close.

' _Star… I'm sorry…_ '

"And don't worry," said Toffee. "You'll be able to control your body again. After I'm done with it, that is." Marco's eyes rolled back and his body slumped onto the ground. A few seconds later, his body got up and looked at Toffee. Marco's features remained the same except for his eyes and demeanor. There were no emotions behind them, only a cold and calculating machine was all that was left.

"Excellent," Toffee smiled.

* * *

Marco awakened in an unknown place. He groaned and got up into a sitting position. Looking around him, he noticed that it was pitch black. The only source of light in the entire place was shining down on him. There were no sounds either.

' _Let's see… I went up to Star's room and…_ ' Marco's eyes widened as he remember what had happened.

"Star!" he yelled. "I have to warn her!" He picked a random direction and ran. The light shining down on him followed his path. He ran for what seemed to be a few minutes before giving up. As he ran, there was only more darkness. He sat down on the ground, wondering where he was. This place didn't make any sense. Why was the light following him around? How did he even get here? Maybe Toffee got what he wanted and he was dead.

A whispering voice reached Marco's ears and he quickly stood up. Turning his head around, he was unable to see anyone. The sound was louder for his right ear. He determined that was the direction of the source and ran.

* * *

Star Butterfly was skipping and humming on her way home. Janna's weird interests may have freaked out the majority of the school, but Star found it absolutely fascinating. But the again, Star wasn't exactly normal by any standards. Having dated a demon before, Star gained an interest for magic with a more hellish quality to it. Of course she would never use those spells on anyone, or at least not yet.

She opened the door to the Diaz household and yelled, "Marco, I'm home!" Her giant smile faltered and disappeared as no voice greeted her back.

"Huh," she commented and tapped her chin with the wand. "Where could he have gone off to?" She closed the door and entered the house. As she did so, Marco was revealed to be hiding right behind the door.

"Maybe he's sleeping," she talked to herself. The smell of nachos entered her nose and she looked at the plate stacked with the snacks. "Aw, the nachos are going to be cold by the time he wakes up. Maybe a little magic will…" Marco slowly approached Star from behind. He held a kitchen knife in his right hand. Closer and closer with silent steps that were barely noticeable. Right behind her now, he extended his right arm and plunged the knife at her. Star sensed something behind her and turned around.

"Narwhal blast!" she shouted. A group of narwhals emerged from the wand and flew directly into Marco, knocking the boy back.

"What the- Marco?!" Star asked with shock. She was unable to comprehend why her best friend had a knife in his hands and had attacked her.

' _Maybe it's one of those prank things,_ ' Star thought. She had watched plenty of videos on that "Youtube" site where pranks like these were filmed. ' _Yeah, that's it. Marco's just being dumb right now._ '

She nodded to herself in agreement. "Ha ha ha, Marco," she forced out a laugh. "I get it, it's one of those prank things. You want to put it online and impress Jackie, is that it?"

Marco stood up readied the knife for another strike.

"Marco, that's not funny," she said with a guarded tone. Why was he being like this? He's supposed to be the safe kid, the reasonable one.

"I'm afraid that your friend is currently busy," Marco replied in Toffee's voice. Star's eyes widened as she realised who the voice belonged to.

"You!" Star yelled. "What have you done to him?"

"Oh, I didn't do much. I merely persuaded him to allow me the use of his body."

Star pointed her wand at him. "Stop it right now or I'll blast you into the void!"

"Are you really going to threaten me? This body is still the boy's. If it dies, then he'll die as well." 'Marco' walked towards her. "One of you will have to die today. But who dies is of no importance to me. I'll get what I want either way."

"Marco! Snap out of it!" she shouted.

"It won't work. I've trapped him into the subconscious. He'll either die with visions of trying to kill you or wake up with you dying in his arms."

"It won't happen!" Star declared. "Marco and I will find a way to stop you!"

"Really?" 'Marco' laughed. "Your magic isn't strong enough to get rid of my spell and the boy's will is too weak."

"You just wait and see, Marco will regain control. I know he will."

"Unfortunately for you, he's already been tainted by dark magic. What great proficiency he could have in that field. I do wonder if he found Eclipsa's chapter to be an interesting read or not. Oh well, I'll have to ask him once you're dead." The Toffee controlled Marco lunged at Star with knife in hand.

* * *

Marco had been following the voice through the darkness. He didn't know where it led, but his instincts told him to follow it. Even as his legs were becoming tired and he was running out of breath, he refused to stop. Any hope of being able to escape from this place, even if it was as miniscule as a microscopic creature, he was going to pursue it. If not for his own stake, then for Star's.

The light above stopped following him and he could see another source of light, a glowing ball floating a distance away from him. Pushing his body even further, he sprinted towards it.

' _Almost there,_ ' he kept telling himself. Finally, he made contact with the ball of light and vanished from the dark place and blacked out once more.

Marco woke up in a strange place. He was inside of a steel cage and in front of him a few feet away was some sort of computer. The screen was five feet wide and three feet in height. On it was the events that were currently happening in the real world, his own body attacking his best friend. Below the screen were controls. He was unable to make out what the words were on the buttons. And in front of it all was a lizard on a seat.

' _Toffee,_ ' Marco thought with anger. He touched the steel bars that confined him. This cage was not an ordinary one as it had no lock. How did he manage to get into the cage in the first place? And how was he going to get out? Maybe there was something around that he could use. His thoughts were distracted by a 'clink' sound to his left. He turned around and saw a stranger sipping on tea.

The stranger's face and body was concealed by a hooded cloak. The stranger sat on a wooden chair with a round wooden table in front. S/he had a porcelain tea set.

"Hello Marco Diaz," the stranger said with a baritone voice. "My name is Victor Steele. I'm here to make a deal with you."

* * *

Marco lunged the knife at Star and she dodged it.

"Levitato!" Star yelled. The knife in Marco's hand flew up to the ceiling where it embedded itself into the wooden structure.

"No matter," 'Marco' said. He cracked his knuckles and wiggled his fingers. "I'll just have to choke you to death."

Star was thinking about what spells she could use. She didn't want to harm Marco's body, but there was very little choice as Toffee controlled his mind.

' _Wait a minute… His mind… His mind…_ ' Her eyes widened as a light bulb went off in her head. ' _That's it! His mind!_ '

"Jellybean hallucination mist!" The spell hit Marco's body and he stopped in confusion.

* * *

In the "control room" as Marco called it, the screen turned into some weird thing with swirling colors and jellybeans flying all over the place.

"Yeah, go Star!" Marco cheered. A loud thud was followed by the room shaking. And again. And again. And again.

"Hey, what are you doing!" he yelled at the lizard at the seat. The screen didn't help him to see what was going on as the hallucination blocked everything. "Stop it!"

"You do realise that the lizard isn't actually here, right?" asked Victor. "It's just a figment of your imagination."

Marco turned his head towards the stranger. "Then what are you?"

Victor sipped on the cup of tea. "I already told you. My name's Victor I'm here to make a deal."

* * *

Marco's body flung itself onto the many surfaces in the kitchen area. The counter, the floor, the refrigerator, etc.

"What are you doing?" Star shouted.

"Since I can't harm you in this state, I'll just harm the boy's body instead," 'Marco' replied. "I already told you, didn't I? It doesn't matter who dies today."

"Raspberry Ribbon Lasso!" A ribbon of light wrapped itself around Marco and tied him up on the ground. Marco's head continued to smash itself on the ground.

"Stop it!" Star yelled.

The Toffee controlled Marco laughed at her. "Come on now, you did this yourself. This wouldn't have happened if you would just die like a good little girl."

"Why? Why are you doing this?" Star cried out.

"Why, indeed. It's because of your family's sins, Butterfly. They murdered my kind and pushed us far away from our rightful homes."

"Then what do you want from me? The wand?"

"No, not just the wand. I want to crush the filth who call themselves the royal family of Mewni. I want to make you suffer just as my brethren have. I want your dreams and your soul to be crushed by my own hands." The hallucination began to clear and Marco's body shrugged off the light-rope.

* * *

"A deal?" Marco asked.

"Yes, a deal," Victor mocked. "A contract, an agreement between two or more parties."

"I know what a deal is!" Marco said, insulted. He looked at the screen. The jellybean mist was still on it. The room still shook every once in a while.

"The deal is this: you help me get what I want and I'll help you regain control of your body," Victor explained. "Sound good to you?"

"Why should I trust you?" asked Marco.

The stranger shrugged. "Whether or not you trust me is all up to you. I'm just here to make the deal with you."

"No," Marco answered.

"Oh?"

"Star will be able to stop Toffee," Marco declared confidently. The jellybean mist was slowly disappearing and he could see the lasso tying down his body. "Ha, see!"

The shaking of the room became more intense as his body smashed its own head on the floor of the kitchen.

"You sure about that?" questioned Victor.

"Yes!"

"Oh well," Victor shrugged. "It's your death."

* * *

Star stepped back and her back hit the wall. To her right was the refrigerator and to her left was a counter. The back door was on the opposite wall of her. Marco grabbed a kitchen knife, flipped it, and caught it by its blade. The distance between the two was closing with every passing moment. Star was panicking and trying to think of a spell to use.

"Sunshine Friendship Spell!" A beam of light came from the wand and hit Marco without any effects.

"That won't work," 'Marco' said.

Star gritted her teeth. She really didn't want to hurt her best friend, but there was no other choice. "Narwhal blast!"

Marco pushed the wand upwards and the stream of narwhals hit the ceiling instead. In the moment of Star's defenselessness, Marco thrusted the knife at her.

* * *

Victor was now chewing on some biscuits. "You know, your girlfriend is extremely resourceful," he commented.

"She's not my girlfriend," Marco responded.

The stranger looked at Marco, then at the screen, and then back to Marco. "Really?" he asked, unconvinced.

"Yes! She's just my best friend! There's nothing romantic between the two of us!"

"Huh. Anyways, the deal's still open for now. But hurry up, it's going to close soon."

"Why do you want to make a deal with me anyways?" asked Marco with suspicion. "What do you get out of it?"

"Revenge," Victor replied. He pointed at the Toffee figure. "That lizard killed me and my comrades a long time ago. I want to see him to die and burn in hell." The screen showed Marco's body picking up a knife.

"I can't help you with that," Marco said and looked back at the screen. "Even if I regain control I can't kill Toffee."

"This is a soul contract, you dolt," Victor sighed. "If we make this agreement, then I'll give you powers that you can use to kill the lizardman." The screen now showed Star holding her wand at Marco.

"Better hurry up, the deal's gone in five… four…"

"Come on, Star! You can do it!" Marco cheered.

"Narwhal blast!" Star shouted from the screen. Marco's body deflected the attack. Marco gritted his teeth and held onto the bars of his prison.

"Three…" The body held the knife in position and prepared to stab Star. Marco felt himself turn pale. He could only watch helplessly as time froze for him. The unknown man who called himself Victor wasn't exactly helping either. Should he trust Victor and make the deal? It was all too sudden to make a rational decision.

"Two…" It was now or never. If this Victor guy wasn't telling the truth, then Marco could at least know that he tried his best to save Star.

"I'll do it!" shouted Marco. "I'll accept the deal!"

The stranger's cloak and hood was instantly replaced by a cowboy outfit. The man looked like someone straight out of a wild west movie. Leather outfit, tanned skin, messy brown hair, etc.

"Good choice," Victor said as he took another sip of tea.

* * *

Marco's right hand held the knife that went closer and closer to Star. In the moment that Marco regained control of his own body, his left arm moved on instinct. His left hand formed a finger gun that pointed at the knife and a projectile shot out from his index finger. The "bullet" hit the knife and threw it off course; it stabbed into the wall to Star's left.

Marco grasped and pulled on his hair as he screamed in agony trying to fight Toffee's spell.

"Marco!" Star yelled. "Marco, you can do it!"

He fell onto the ground and clutched his head in pain.

' _You know what you have to do,_ ' a voice in his head said. Marco gritted his teeth and made a finger gun with his right hand and pointed it at his head. He fired and the bullet went straight through his brain. Marco's body slumped onto the ground and Star's eyes filled with tears.

"Marco!" she cried. She went over to him and cradled his body. He wasn't breathing, his eyes were closed, his face had a peaceful expression to it, and, most importantly, his heart wasn't beating.

"Marco…" She cried and tears dropped down onto his chest. Why did this have to happen? She couldn't save him; he died and it was all her fault. How was she going to explain this to the Diaz's? Or his friends?

A few moments later, Marco regained consciousness and opened his eyes. His head was killing him. He rose up and saw Star in her current state.

"Wha? Star?"

She looked into his eyes with her own tear-filled ones and saw that he was completely normal again. She hugged him tightly and sobbed even harder.

"Mar-Marco I-I I was so scared," she babbled.

Marco returned the hug and tried to comfort her. "It's okay, Star. It's okay. It's all over now."

' _Remember our deal, Diaz,_ ' Victor said in his head. ' _I fulfilled my end and now it's your turn._ ' Marco sighed at the fact that he was going to have to explain to Star what had happened. Just how was he supposed to do that?

' _Out of the frying pan and into the fire,_ ' Marco internally sighed.

The two of them were emotionally exhausted and couldn't go through Friendship Thursday as planned. Soon, they fell asleep on the sofa hugging each other and sharing a blanket.

* * *

Marco's new ability:

Hellfire Bullets: A demon power that shoots out bullets made out of hellfire. The exterior temperature depends on how proficient the user is. The direct center of the bullet is always at two thousand degrees celsius. Can be fired from any finger. Multiple fingers can shoot at the same time. Most users train with a main finger and a backup one for consistent aiming.

Any demon power that a person uses cannot be used to kill themselves. Any injuries caused by their own demon powers will heal.

Demon powers become even more powerful when the user is in a near-death state.

* * *

An explanation of sorts:

Mind control abilities work by trapping the victim's soul in their body. When Marco shot himself, he is put into a near-death state where his soul temporarily goes out of his body. In this state, Toffee's hold on his soul is broken. Marco's fatal wound heals and he is back in control.

* * *

Victor's backstory:

The leader of a desperado group in a wild west dimension. He and his group volunteered to fight for Mewni during the Monster-Mewnian conflict. Toffee and his forces proved to be too strong and they all died, swarmed from all directions. His teammates have moved on while he wanders through limbo as a lost soul. He saw Marco's predicament and decided to take advantage of it.

* * *

AN: The main idea for this oneshot was a thing I had planned for my "The Princess Bride" story. Marco gets brainwashed and makes a deal to regain control and get new abilities.

* * *

Extra: Bad Ending, because I'm evil

Marco grasped and pulled on his hair as he screamed in agony trying to fight Toffee's spell.

"Marco!" Star yelled. "Marco, you can do it!"

Marco stopped screaming and he looked at Star. Her eyes widened as she saw that his eyes had returned to normal.

"Star?" he asked in his normal voice.

"Marco!" she cried out and hugged him. "I'm so glad-" Color drained from her face as she felt a sharp pain from her back. Marco had stabbed her with the knife. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at her betrayer.

"Why?" she whispered.

"You are such a fool, Butterfly," Marco said in Toffee's voice. "You are such a fool."


	2. Lovers of the World

Lovers of the World

* * *

Marco had asked Jackie out to the movies. And she had agreed. A reminder entered his head and he groaned as he realised what today was.

Star looked at him with puzzlement. "What's wrong? I thought you wanted Jackie to go out with you."

"Yeah, but it's also Friendship Thursday! How could I have forgotten about it!" Marco slapped his forehead and then looked around for Jackie. She was nowhere to be found in the crowds of people.

"I'm going to ask to cancel and put it to another day," he informed Star.

"No, you won't," Star protested. "You've been crushing on her for so long and this is your biggest chance!"

"But what about-"

"I'll be fine," Star waved his concerns off. "You just have fun with Jackie."

"You sure?" asked Marco.

"Yeah, of course! I can make my own fun. Going to other dimensions, maybe even visiting Ponyhead at St. Olga's."

"If you say so."

"And I do say so," Star nodded. "Now come on, Ms. Skullnick is going to yell at us if we're late!"

The date with Jackie was fun and without any problems. But there had been a thought in his head that he couldn't explain, a thought that kept him from enjoying the full experience of the date. The thought of ' _I wonder what Star's doing_ ' infested his mind. Other thoughts naturally followed. Ones such as, ' _I wonder if she's having fun without me_ ' or ' _I wish Star had seen that._ ' It was unexplainable. Jackie, his lifelong crush, was on a date with him and all he could think about was the Mewnian princess that was his best friend.

A question entered his mind that night. ' _Why do I care about Star so much?_ '

….

It was now a few weeks later and the question was still burning in his head. During that time, another question entered into in his head. Thankfully, he had someone to ask.

Mr. Diaz was in the kitchen making a snack. Mrs. Diaz had some sort of meeting to attend to for work. In the meanwhile, Star had to temporarily go back to Mewni for some royal business.

"Dad?" Marco went up to his father. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure mijo, what do you need?" Rafael replied.

"How do you know if you love someone?" Marco blurted out.

"So, what prompted this?" His father asked with raised eyebrow.

"I don't know… I've just been… having feelings that I don't know what are."

His father nodded and turned to the stove. "Okay. Well, do you care for them?"

"Yeah…" Marco had expected his father to some something like this but it didn't make it any less embarrassing.

"Do your feelings change with theirs?"

"What?"

"Do you feel sad when they're sad and happy when they're happy?"

"I feel that way with you and mom," Marco replied.

"Aw, so you _do_ still love your parents, that's good to know," Mr. Diaz chuckled.

"Dad," Marco whined out.

"Okay, okay." Marco's dad became serious again. "Do you feel _especially_ happy or sad with them?"

Marco thought about how Star's smile always seem to brighten up his days. It wasn't his fault that her smiles were so contagious. Plus, her hugs were always nice. And when she was downtrodden during the time Oskar hadn't called her, he went through the plan of luring monsters to Earth so she could feel better by beating them up. Was it actually love though? The two of them were just friends, right? Marco would feel bad if anyone was sad. Okay, maybe not for Jeremy, but you get the point. But would he have gone to the same lengths he did for Star? For someone like Jackie? He internally shook his head. He was thinking about it way too much.

"I… guess…" Marco hesitantly answered his dad's question.

"Do they have a special place in your heart?"

"Um…" Star was just his best friend, right? He cared about her, but she cared about him too. It was only natural for him to want to return the favor.

"You don't have to answer it now," Rafael said. "You shouldn't worry about something like this when you're so young. You've got plenty of time to decide who to let into your heart. And you'll know when you really love somebody. You'll feel warm and happy when they're next to you, like your heart has sang a song of pure joy that lights up your body. Your fears and worries will melt away by their smile. Your-"

"I think I get the point, dad," Marco interrupted. He exited the kitchen and made his way up to his room.

"And remember, trust is very important in a relationship," his dad yelled. "You shouldn't fall in love with someone that you can't trust."

Inside of his room, Marco flopped down onto the bed. He groaned at the fact that Star made his life even more complicated than it should be. They were now best friends, but could they be something more? Did he want to take that chance? If Star didn't reciprocate his feelings, then there might be a chance of ruining their friendship. In addition, Star was a princess to a kingdom while he was basically just a commoner. With Star, it wasn't just having a girlfriend, it was a life changing decision. He would have to be king and rule with her if he followed through on this.

' _You'll know when you really love someone._ ' His father's words echoed in this head. Marco sighed at his own uncertainty. Why couldn't he just have a crush on Jackie?

…...

Marco's inner thoughts hadn't gone away but increased as the days went by. He started to notice more and more about what his dad had said. There was this unexplainable feeling of warmth that coursed through his body when he saw her bright smile.

However, the thought of ruining their friendship still remained and had him distracted. Star asked him if he was okay and he waved off her concerns by saying that he had been staying up too late. It was technically true and she didn't need to know the real reason.

…...

It was now Friendship Thursday and Marco had asked his dad for advice once more.

"With your mom, I just went up to her and asked her out," Rafael said.

"That's it?" asked Marco.

"Yep, that's it."

"So what would you have done if you were rejected?"

"I would have been extremely sad, but I think I would've moved on sooner or later," Mr. Diaz shrugged. "A lot of people's first love isn't their last, you know. There are plenty of fish in the sea, as they say."

"Hmm…"

"And it's better to tell that person sooner rather than later. So what if you get rejected? You'll be free of those nervous thoughts."

"Okay, thanks dad."

"You're welcome," Rafael ruffled his son's hair. "So, who's the lucky lady?"

"Dad!"

….

Marco calmed down his nerves as he prepared to ask Star out. Pacing around the kitchen and taking deep breaths, he waited for her to come home. Star bursted through the front door.

"Hey Marco," she said excitedly. "You feelin' good enough for Friendship Thursday?"

"Yeah," he replied with a smile and nod. "Hey Star?"

"Hmm?"

"You want to go out tonight?"

Star looked towards the front door. "Outside? What's happening outside tonight? Ooh, is there going to be a party? Or is it one of those Earth traditions?"

"No, not outside!" Marco yelled. "Go out, like a date."

Star looked at him with a puzzled face and he was impressed that he was still able to have eye contact with her.

"Oh, I get it. You're practicing to ask Jackie out again. I knew something was bothering you." She went up to him and patted him on the back. "Don't worry, you'll do fine. She's already gone out with you."

"No! This has nothing to do with Jackie! I'm asking you," Marco pointed at her. "to go out on a date with me." He pointed at himself.

Star put her right hand on his forehead. "Are you feeling okay? Maybe you should get some rest, your face is super red right now."

He gently removed her hand. "I'm fine! It's just that I've been talking to my dad and… uh… andIthinkIlikeyou." He looked towards the floor as his face burned up.

"Huh?"

"I think I like you," Marco repeated in a slower pace. "You know, _like like_ you."

"Oh…" Star's hearts on her cheeks began to glow.

The silence between the two made Marco feel like the air was thickening more and more with each passing second.

Star broke the silence. "Well, I think I _like like_ you too." Marco felt his stress completely melt away and sighed. Another moment of of awkward silence followed. He had planned for rejection but not for this.

Once again, Star broke the silence. "So, what now?" she asked.

"I don't know."

"What about that date?"

* * *

AN: Inspired by the song "Lovers of the World" by Jerry Wallace


	3. Monster Star AU part 0

A Monster Star AU (introduction and background)

* * *

AN: Do you know what AU is terribly missing from most fanfictions? Monster Star! This is to introduce the history of the AU with Eclipsa. Star is briefly introduced at the end.

* * *

Eclipsa was a queen of Mewni that had many nicknames. "Monster lover" was only one of them. The other significant one was lost forever to the history of the kingdom. For the safety of the kingdom, a forbidden spell was removed from the book of spells and buried deep into the archives. One cannot truly get rid of a spell. One, however, can hid it deep underground.

The citizens during her reign were absolutely furious that she had made love with one of their enemies.

"A brute!" one of them had cried out. "She made her bed with a brute!" The farm workers began to riot, the nobles turned their backs on her, even her children ran away. Her former husband planned a coup to wrestle control from her. Mewni prepared for a civil war against the dark witch but it never came. It never came because Eclipsa had a plan. A plan so evil that the history of it had to be removed from all archives in order to make sure it never happened again.

In order to unite the Mewnians and the monsters, there needed to be a common enemy. But not just a regular enemy, this enemy needed to be something that can only be defeated if monsters and Mewnians worked together. One night, she completed the necessary rituals and created the first of their kind, a vampire. Vampire are strange creatures. One can categorize it as a monster, but a vampire is also human. Can something be both a human and a monster?

It was a special type of vampire; it could turn anyone else into a vampire with a single bite. At the time of its creation, there was one. By the dawn of the next day, there were a thousand. The first vampire took ten bites, the second one took nine, the third one took eight, and so on.

The royal courts heard the worries from the monsters but paid them no mind.

"They're just monsters," they said. "They're not under our jurisdiction."

And so another day passed and the night began again. There were a thousand. And by the dawn of the next day, there were hundreds of thousands. Both Mewnian and monster alike were overwhelmed and turned into bloodsuckers. The citizens who expanded out into the forests were all gone. Those that made it out alive had to rely on monsters. And so began the plan.

The forests were now swarmed with vampires and the monsters were denied entry into the Heartlands. Eclipsa was smart enough to place holy magic around the kingdom so that the vampires couldn't go in. She declared Mewni to be in a state of emergency and created an army to fight the vampires. A scouting group went in. They were never seen again.

The next day, another group went in. They were also never seen again. And so on and so forth. But one day, a group did come back. They were with a two monsters. The survivors told the kingdom of how the monsters helped them to distract the vampire long enough for the soldiers to kill the abominations.

Two groups were ready to go into the forest, with one of the groups having monsters in it. Deep mistrust was still present, but Eclipsa knew that it would be gone soon. Once again, the group with the monsters survived. As the number of groups began to increase, she made half of the groups always include monsters. As always, the group with the monsters in them were the only ones that survived the trip into the forest. It even got to the point where soldiers asked for monsters to be included if they weren't already.

One day, the queen made an announcement that would forever change the kingdom, the creation of the Mewnian-Monster Pact. Essentially, the pact stated that the monsters would help the Mewnian soldiers and would be able to stay in Mewni in return. Surprising, nobody complained. If it was something that could help them survive, then they would accept it.

The war against the vampires ended three months later. Both monsters and Mewnians got along with each other, their past feuds forgotten for the time being. Eclipsa's lover was named a hero and everyone cheered. By now, everyone was too exhausted or too relieved to care about it. However, there was an unnamed Septarian who was absolutely furious. He knew the truth, that the queen's lover was a coward.

One night, he decided to take matters into his own hands and planned an assassination. Right as he was about to enter the bedroom, a young girl appeared before him. She had bright orange marks that looked like the sun on her cheeks.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I saw an intruder walk into the queen's bedroom and wanted to make sure nothing happened," he replied.

The muffled sounds of giggling and flirty could be heard from the outside.

"Oh, it's just father," the girl said.

"You don't look to happy about it."

"I don't like him. I wish my real father could be with me." The girl turned around and walk down the hallway.

"After tonight, you'll get your wish, girl." He opened the door and went it. There were three inside the bedroom that night. And in the dawn, there were two cold bodies lying on the ground. The Septarian succeeded in killing the monster, but paid a heavy price: he would be forever stuck in the depths of hell.

The next morning would prove to be her undoing. Her former husband had planted a device inside the bedroom to listen on her conversations.

" _Oh, you're so devious, my queen," a deep voice said. "But that's why I love you so much."_

" _Of course I am. Did you think otherwise?" Eclipsa replied._

" _How did you ever think up of such a plan?"_

" _It was simple. Enemies become allies when there is a common enemy. All I needed was an enemy that could only be defeated by Mewnians and monsters fighting alongside each other. And vampires were just the right thing for the job."_

"My fellow men and women," the former king said. "Listen as your queen spells out her plans. She did not care for any of us, but used us for her own selfish needs. She has even used our fellow friends, the monsters. She unleashed an unspeakable horror upon all of us and for what? So that she could make her bed with a coward! Her lover was nothing more than a scared child in the battlefield and I have proof! Listen to what your soldiers say about him and how he ran away with his tail between his legs, whimpering like a puppy!"

Soldiers came up along with monsters to attest to the claim.

"We went in and when the battle was over, he was nowhere to be found," said a Mewnian.

"His scent was faint. He clearly ran away," said a monster. "And I should know, I can smell up to three hundred feet away.

As more and more evidence piled up, the entire kingdom became furious. That day, a coup d'etat was staged. The Mewnian kingdom (kingdom now included monsters) had lost half its fighting force fighting the vampires. At the end of the coup, the fighting force was down to a mere two hundred soldiers. The kingdom was now crippled. Solaris was made the new queen and the kingdom was rebuilt from the ground up.

Eclipsa had betrayed her own kingdom for a lover. But on the other hand, she helped Mewni to achieve what was thought of as impossible: peace with the monsters.

…..

Generations later, there was a princess by the name of Moon Butterfly. She had become fast friends with a Septarian by the name of Toffee. Toffee was a renowned lawyer who made his way up into the royal world. Moon also had a man pursuing her heart, River Johansen.

The Johansen Kingdom was to the east of Mewni. It was primarily ruled by a barbarian clan who still had a deep seated distrust of monsters.

Moon had fallen in love with Toffee instead and River tried to change her mind.

"Aren't you afraid of being called a monster lover?" he asked.

"Of course not, there are plenty of families with monsters and Mewnians in them," she waved off his concerns.

"But he's a monster!" he protested.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she glared at him.

"All monsters are evil! Did you forget how many of your people they had killed in the past?"

Moon sighed and explained to him what really happened. River, however, was unrelenting and brought it up at every opportunity. Evidence from the Johansen Kingdom's books, stories told by tongue, and etc were used in an effort to persuade Moon from being with Toffee. Eventually, Moon snapped.

"And a barbarian like you would be better?" Moon scoffed.

"Better than a monster!" River yelled.

"I've had enough of you," she snarled. "I tolerated you at first because I had hoped that you would change, but you're just a stubborn mule listening to outdated tales! From this day onward, you are banned from Mewni!"

Years later, Moon and Toffee would be married. After nine months, a baby was born. A girl that was the first princess with mixed blood, Star Butterfly. She had blue-gray skin and a lizard's tail. Her irises were light yellow-green on the bottom half and light blue-green on the top half. On each side of her cheek was a dark red heart.

On that day, River swore that he would have his revenge.

…..

Star was now fourteen; she had white-silver hair that reached her knees. Her teeth resembled her father's sharp teeth. She was currently wearing a dark gray dress. She jumped up and down in excitement for what would happen today; she would receive her mother's wand.


	4. Dreamers of Change

Dreamers of Change

* * *

AN: I really want to rewrite my "Princess Bride" story but don't have the concentration to. Anyways, here's a big blob of text created because I watched too many cutscenes from the Metal Gear Solid series.

* * *

Many things have happened over the past few weeks. For one, Toffee was winning against the Mewnian army and the Magic High Commission. After many losses, Mewni decided to call for help. Only one kingdom, the Kingdom of Aron, answered the call. In return for their help, Aron wanted Star Butterfly to marry their prince, Conrad Winchester. Moon and Star agreed to the deal and the contract was made. Meanwhile, Marco was retraining himself with his dimensional scissor-sword. After he was satisfied, he went to Mewni to help Star only to find out about the marriage contract. Angry, the fourteen year old challenged Conrad to a duel with these terms: if Marco loses, then he backs off forever, and if Conrad loses, then the contract is nullified.

"A duel, huh?" Conrad asked as he paced back and forth. "A duel with such stupid conditions."

The prince stopped walking and looked at Marco. "You do realize that without our help, Mewni will become nothing as soon as that lizard comes back, right?"

Marco didn't answer.

"A man of few words, aren't you?" Conrad mocked. "Very well, I suppose I'll play your little game. Just don't cry when you lose." He began to pace around the room again. "But what kind of duel? A magic one? You don't look like you've got any magic on you."

Marco swung his dimensional scissors down at the ground. Flame enveloped the scissors and transformed them into a sword. "What about a sword fight?" he asked.

Conrad's face became one of disgust. "A sword fight? What do you think you are, a knight? But I suppose with your ridiculous ideas, you might as well be a knight."

"What?" Marco asked with a confused tone. "You make it sound like it's bad to be a knight."

"Do you know what a knight is, Diaz? A knight is a man with a so-called code of honor that he would happily abandon if it means his survival. He is also a self-righteous bastard that thinks he knows what's best for everyone. Knights, they think they can save the world by swinging their swords around like a bunch of limp dicks with the idea of saving the poor damsels in distress and receiving love in return. So yes, it is bad to be a knight. It is bad to be an idiot with grandeur views of being in the battlefield, killing anyone who might disagree with you."

"And what are you then?"

"What am I?" Conrad replied. "I'm an assassin, of course. I may kill people but at least I'm aware of why I'm killing them. No ideologies or made up stories to cloud my judgement."

"And an assassin is better than a knight?" questioned Marco.

Conrad scoffed at Marco's question. "At least assassins know how to win fights. All a knight knows how to do is be judgemental towards others."

He continued in a mocking tone, "They see a poor damsel and want to rescue her. And it doesn't matter know many people he harms because at the end of the day he'll complete his mission and get a wonderful peck on the cheek. Isn't that oh so lovely?"

Conrad's tone turned to one of disgust. "Knights are all the same. You probably think like them too. You think I'm such an evil villain, don't you? You think I'm taking away your princess's freedom and forcing her to marry me, that I have a list of people whose lives I can ruin and I just so happen to pick Star Butterfly's name. Come on, tell me the truth. That's what you think of me, isn't it?"

Marco didn't respond.

"That's all right," Conrad said. "You don't have to say anything. Your silence already speaks volumes about your thoughts, or rather the lack of thoughts in your head.

Do you even know what it means to be a prince? Do you know what it means to be a royal? I'll give you a little hint, even if we were to have fought, I would have made sure that I had won. If I still wasn't able to win, then I would have made sure you didn't survive to tell anyone. Do you know why that is, Diaz?"

"Because you're a coward," Marco answered.

"Wrong. That answer is completely wrong. You do think like a knight. The correct answer would be that I would lose my power in the world. Any royal that loses in anything to a mere commoner is laughed at. You may have won the battle, but you can't win the war. Power is the only thing that matters in the world. But power comes at a cost. The cost of your power, your skills in swordsmanship, are time and maybe exhaustion from practice. The cost of a royal's power, however, comes at the cost of our freedom.

Our freedom of who to marry, our freedom to freely express our true selves - not just the things we pretend to be, our freedom of clothing to wear, our freedom of what foods to eat, our freedom of what movements to make, our freedom of what words to speak, even our freedom of what hairstyle to have. All of those freedoms can be put into one, the freedom of _choice_. Every single thing that we do cannot be truly our choice, but is restricted by the set rules and duties created by our ancestors. This marriage is nothing more than one of those sacrifices that we have to make for our power.

And if we were to disobey the set rules enough times, we would be sent to Saint Olga's reformation schools. The schools turn the princesses into prim and proper girls who don't argue, don't misbehave, and don't expresses themselves. Girls who have tea time on every afternoon, who sing to animals like maniacs, who cannot comprehend doing anything outside what they have been taught to do. They become nothing more than human dolls. Meanwhile, the men are turn into 'Prince Charming's. We're taught how to look handsome, how to properly treat a lady, how to wield a sword, how to recite stupid poems and speeches, how to be a knight and rescue the poor damsels in distress and smile like a goddamned idiot. We are taught those things along with outdated codes of honor that have no place in the battlefield anymore. I had to stay in that stupid place for a month. I managed to fool them all into thinking that I learned my lessons and they sent me home after that.

Do you know why Saint Olga's was created and is still going today? It's to keep the power of the old systems in place. It's to make sure that the younger generations don't become too rebellious and change the way that everything is. And the kings and queens eat it all up. Because if they know that it their sons or daughters become too far from the norm, then they will lose their power over other kingdoms. Think about that for a moment. Think about why we, Aron's men, were the only ones who answered the call for help sent out by Mewni. One of those reasons is that the princess is too unruly. Imagine what the royals from other families think.

They think to themselves, 'Why hasn't the queen reigned her in and sent her to Saint Olga's yet?' They think that the princess is too improper, that's she's too rebellious, that she's too wild and free, that she's too uncontrolled. Another reason is that the queen herself married a barbarian. To all the royals, a barbarian is nothing more than a commoner. And because of that nobody cares about Mewni. That is their curse, their curse of scoffing away anything that challenges their set rules. But my kingdom has its own curse, our thirst for power. Since the beginning of our rule, the royal family married itself off to any powerful magicians to have powerful children. And it doesn't matter who that magician is, as long as they were powerful. For eons now, the Winchester family has tried to court with the princesses of Mewni, only to be rejected. And now, this is the chance to make that dream happen. If I were to fail this, then I would be outed and left to the wolves.

Your actions have consequences. The world isn't as black and white as you might think it is. I didn't just happen to choose Star Butterfly to be my future wife on a whim. I didn't invade the place and forced her to be my wife. Our two kingdoms made a deal: Aron's help for the hand of Star. And without our help, Mewni might've been reduced to ashes yesterday. So, _you're welcome_."

"I-I'm, uh, I'm sorry," Marco replied.

"Goddamn right you should be sorry."

"So that's it, then? Nothing can be done to change the rules?" asked Marco.

"No single man can change the world as no individual can bear the weight of social pressure that comes from challenge this system. These rules have been set for generations now and they refuse to change. A group might be able to make changes, but they will still face the same hardships as the individual would. If a single founding member cannot take the pressure and gives up, the the group will collapse as well.

I once fell in love with a princess, but my father didn't think that she was good enough. The way that Aron measures magical power is by raw magic potential, which is absolutely stupid. Skill should be the main factor, after all. I made up a plan for her to prove that she did have more than enough power. But she refused. 'Young ladies like me shouldn't fight,' she said. I tried to convince her but ultimately gave up. I was furious at her until I realized that she was only playing by the set rules that her ancestors made. The idea that women shouldn't be allowed to fight is a ridiculous one, but it is one that has survived through the ages.

Do you understand, Diaz? Do you understand why I have said all of this to you?"

"Yeah," Marco responded.

"Star Butterfly should count herself as lucky to be able to have her freedoms, even if it is only temporary. Get out of here and go to your princess. Let her have the feeling of freedom in her heart before it is inevitably snuffed out from her life."

"But you're wrong, we can change the rules," Marco said. "Star and I have managed to convince the princesses at Saint Olga's to rebel and they've taken over the facilities now. It's not anything big, but it's something, right?"

Conrad stared into Marco's eyes and saw that the fourteen year old was telling the truth.

"That type of change is too slow and will never get anywhere," the prince replied.

"In my home dimension, Earth, there were royal families all over the world. It took some time for they lost their power or were overthrown, but there are no more kings ruling anything at all. We elect our rulers through the votes of the people. If Earth can do it, then other dimensions can as well."

"Hmm, you may have a point. But for now, go to your princess. Go and let her live her dreams."

* * *

Conrad Winchester, the prince of Aron.

Eyes: Green

Hair: Blonde, long enough to reach his shoulders

Age: 16

Usually seen wearing the white royal outfit. He is a member of the Royal Assassin's Guild. "The best counter to an assassin is another assassin" is the their motto. Conrad was a former member of the Royal Knight's Guild for one year. He left because he became disillusioned with the knight's ideals. The person he fell in love with was Suzy Brotherswing of the Steamworld dimension.

* * *

AN: You were expecting a fight scene, but it was I, a monologue!


	5. Wild West AU

Wild West AU: Star the Underestimated

Starring: Sheriff Marco, Deputy Star, Bartender Jackie, Bandit Janna, Mayor Conrad, Outlaw Tom

* * *

In the dusty western frontier stood a town by the name of Echo Creek. It was a small, modest town with a population of one hundred people. Its current mayor was Conrad Winchester, who had been the former sheriff before Marco Diaz took the position. Diaz had proven himself to be more than capable of protecting the town from any threats. Bandits, thieves, terrorists, outlaws, fugitives, all of them were no threat to the town with Marco around. His deputy was Star Butterfly. Unlike Marco, Star was seen as unfit to protect the town by most people. They saw her as clumsy as she always tripped in the middle of a gunfight.

"How is she supposed to protect us if she keeps falling down?" they questioned.

Star was almost fired until Marco convinced Conrad to give her a chance.

When asked why, Marco answered, "Because my guts tell me to believe in her. I can't give you an exact reason why, but I've got a good feeling about her. And those feelings haven't been wrong yet."

Conrad agreed and later knew the reason why Marco had that feeling about Star. The young woman had a huge potential and he mentally berated himself for not being able to see it sooner. That potential was hidden in the fact that she tripped so much. Conrad told Marco and the sheriff trained Star into the capable deputy that she is today. However, people still doubted her success.

When the mayor apologized to Star for not having faith in her, she merely replied with, "It's all right, I'm used to it. A lot of people underestimate me."

The answer worried the two men. What had she gone through for a response like that?

* * *

In the afternoon, the Sea Clam Saloon was bustling with activity. People there were drinking, eating, gossiping, playing poker, discussing plans to prospect for oil, etc. The owner was Jackie Lynn Thomas, who also served as the bartender of the bar. She decided to name it "Sea Clam" because she wanted it to be like the sea, a cool and friendly place where everyone can relax. And the clam part was because she always wore a necklace with the shell of a clam.

Suddenly, the entrance to the saloon was kicked wide open. Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked towards the front. Anyone who kicked the entrance open like that was either trouble or was looking for trouble. The one who kicked the door open was a woman with dark blue hair, brown eyes, and a cowboy outfit. The smirk on her face was one that the people of the town could recognize. There was no mistake, it was _her_ , Janna Ordonia.

Janna was a bandit that had been friends with Marco. As a result, she never did anything illegal. However, she still took joy in annoying the civilians.

The customers of the bar groaned and grumbled. Janna continued to smirk and walked up to the bar table. Jackie wiped a glass cup with a white cloth.

"What would you like?" she asked Janna.

"Eh, just the regular," Janna replied.

Jackie nodded, dispensed the alcohol from a faucet into the cup, and placed it on the table. Janna took a coin from a bag attached to her waist and flipped it up and down a few times with her thumb before finally flicking it onto the table. The coin bounced a few times and Jackie intercepted it before it fell off.

"So, why are you back?" Jackie asked. "Got something cool to show to Star again?"

"Nah, nothing like that. I've got actual business this time." Janna took a few gulps of the beer and sighed as the cold liquid went down her throat. "So, how's Marco doing?"

"He's been doing a good job. So far, no threat has been too big for him."

"And Star?"

"Star's maintaining her place as the deputy. People have raised concerns about it, but the mayor and Marco have both defended her." She leaned in and whispered to Janna, "There are rumors spreading that she got the job because she slept with the two of them."

"Eh, don't worry about," Janna waved Jackie's concerns away. "Star's a fighter. It'll take a lot more than some stupid people making stuff up to take her down."

"Hmm," Jackie pursed her lips. Janna chugged down the rest of her beer and slammed down the glass onto the table with more force than Jackie would have liked.

"Well, I'm going to visit Marco now," Janna announced. "See ya!" She walked out of the bar with a wide stroll and a mischievous grin on her face.

Jackie shook her head and went to clean the glass cup. The bartender hoped that Janna was right. Star was a nice person that didn't deserve people talking about her behind her back, especially with such big allegations.

* * *

Inside of the sheriff's office were Marco and Star at their desks. Star was taking a nap while Marco was finishing the last of the paperwork. Whenever a threat was resolved and evil was arrested, the biggest and toughest enemy to all of mankind made itself known: paperwork. Marco stretched his back and put down the last period of the document with his quill.

"And… done!" he rejoiced. When Marco became the sheriff of the town, he knew that there was a possibility of being injured in the line of work. But never in his life did he expect backbreaking paperwork of all things.

The door to the office was opened and the mayor walked in.

"Got all the paperwork done yet?" asked Conrad.

"You're just in time, I just finished it seconds ago," answered Marco.

"I can never understand why we even have to write papers about arresting bad guys. We shot down and put them into a jail cell. What's the point of writing down injuries and what they did. It's not like the people at the top are ever going to read it. Bloody bureaucracies. The outlaws' punishment should be doing paperwork. It'll be more efficient than just locking them up, that's for sure."

"How much paperwork did you have to do when you were sheriff?" Marco questioned.

"None," Conrad replied.

"None?" echoed Marco.

"Echo Creek wasn't an official town when I was doing that. No paperwork, no answering to the government. Only when I was elected mayor did this place become an official town."

"Is that why you quit?"

"No, I quit because I was elected mayor." Conrad grimaced and continued, "And besides, paperwork is easy. At least you don't have to plan the town's construction and expansion and listen to people's inane complaints. I have had people who want me to rename the Sea Clam Saloon because they didn't like how it didn't fit the desert area and how it wasn't a 'manly enough name,' whatever the hell that means."

Conrad looked over at Star and saw that she was asleep. He looked back to Marco.

"Don't worry about it," Marco replied to the nonverbal question. "She stayed up all night and did about two-thirds of the work."

"If you say so. If there are no more problems, I'll just grab the papers and be on my way to send them."

Marco handed over the fat stack of papers over. Conrad grabbed them, patted them down, and turned towards the front of the building. Before he could reach the door, it was kicked wide open by none other than Janna. Marco and Conrad groaned and frowned when they saw it was her.

"Hello, boys!" Janna said cheerfully. "Happy to see me?"

"Not particularly, no," Conrad deadpanned.

"Aw come on, don't be like that." She walked further into the office. "I'm not here to cause trouble, at least not yet. What about you, Diaz?"

"I'd be happier if you didn't cause a ruckus every time," the sheriff responded.

Meanwhile, Star woke from her nap and yawned.

"Oh, hey Janna!" the deputy waved at the infamous bandit.

"See, look at that," Janna said with a smirk. "There's someone that's happy to see me."

"She doesn't count," the mayor replied. "She's happy to see anyone."

"What are you doing here?" Star asked Janna.

"Just to tell all of you that there's a storm approaching this here town," Janna replied. "A gang of five by the name of 'The Lucitors.' The head calls himself 'The Red Baron.'" She took out some papers and handed them to Marco. "His real name is Tom Lucitor. From what people are saying, he's a demon straight from hell. He has the ability to shoot 'Hellfire Bullets' that are capable of melting through any type of armor. He's due to arrive here tomorrow morning."

Marco opened a drawer and brought out a bag containing gold coins. He tossed the bag at Janna, who caught it. "That's your payment for the information," he said.

Janna twirled the bag. "Thank you for your appreciation. I'm going to find a place to stay so I can watch the fight tomorrow, ciao." She exited the office.

Conrad towards the two officers and said, "I've heard about the Red Baron before. He usually targets the towns and areas further to the north. Why would he come to Echo Creek?"

"It doesn't matter why he's coming," Marco replied. "We'll stop him from causing trouble no matter what."

"Good luck." The mayor waved the stack of papers in his hands. "If there's nothing else we need to discuss, I'm off to mail these." He walked out of the office.

Marco turned towards Star. "Looks like we're not done with paperwork for the week just yet." He became concerned by the her look and posture. She was looking at the ground with a sad expression on her face, a far cry from the cheerful demeanor he had grown used to.

"You feeling okay?" he asked.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm feeling fine. I was just, uh, thinking about something." she replied with forced smile.

"All right. Just remember, I'm always open if you need someone to talk to."

* * *

The next day, in the early morning, a cloud of dust approached the small town. The dust was kicked up by five horses galloping in sync with each other. The one riding in the middle was a man with three eyes, two horns, salmon hair, and lilac skin. He wore a bright red outfit, as did the other men. The other four were men who looked like their flesh were decomposing.

Marco and Star stood near the entrance of the town in anticipation. Last night, Star decided to open up to Marco. She revealed that Tom was her ex-boyfriend and was an actual demon from hell.

" _Ex-boyfriend?" Marco repeated in surprise._

 _Star nodded. "I dated him during my rebellious streak. He seemed like a nice guy back then. Back then he would talk about how he would become the greatest bandit in the west, of how people would cower in fear just by the sound of his name."_

" _What happened between you two?"_

" _He kept on trying to get me to sleep with him over and over again. I refused each time and he would try to guilt me by saying how much he gave me and how much he loved me when nobody else would. I eventually got tired of him and broke up. But he refuses to give up and swore that I would go back into his arms eventually. He's probably coming because he heard that I was here."_

 _Marco hugged and reassured her, "Don't worry about it. We'll take him and his gang down." A moment of silence passed._

" _Hey, Marco?" Star asked._

" _Yeah?"_

 _She looked dead straight into his eyes and said, "I want to be the one that takes him down." Her eyes seemed to have a spark in them. Marco knew that he couldn't say no to her request._

The horses stopped by the entrance and the men dismounted.

Tom looked at Marco and scoffed. "So you're the sheriff, huh? You don't look like much." He turned to look at Star. "And Starship, how nice of you to greet me like this. It's been too long since we've seen each other. Are you here to show me around town?"

"Save it for someone who cares," Star replied coldly. "The five of you are under arrest for the trouble that you've caused in other towns."

"What trouble?" Tom mocked. "The only thing we've done is borrow some money."

"You've stolen tons of gold from banks, destroyed homes and bars, kidnapped mayors, and terrorised the sheriffs," Marco said.

"Oh, _that_ ," Tom waved him off. "Well, if you want to arrest me so much, you'll have to beat me in a duel, mister sheriff. Just don't cry once you've lost."

"There'll be a duel, but I won't be the you opponent, Deputy Star Butterfly will."

"Deputy Star?" Tom barked out a laugh and the others laughed along. "Oh, that is a good joke! You really think that she can win against me? I've heard about you in the other towns, Star. About how you fall right on your butt during the mock gunfights." The demon continued to laugh. "Well, if the both of you are so sure about it, I won't argue. I'll see you at noon, Starship."

Tom and the outlaws mounted on their horses and rode off. Marco looked at Star, whose face was filled with fury and eyes were brimmed with tears.

The sheriff hugged her and said, "Don't worry about what he said, that's all in the past. What matters now is that you beat him today."

Star wiped off the tears in her eyes. "I'll beat him. And I'll make him pay for what he did."

Marco looked at her and saw that her eyes no longer had the spark from last night. It was replaced a fire burning deep into her soul that was ready to be unleashed.

* * *

At noon, the crowds gathered around the center of town. Two gunslingers stood face to face with one another at their ready positions. Slightly crouched down and their hand next to their guns, they were ready to draw within a moment's notice.

"Come on, Starship, we don't have to do this," Tom said with a smile. "Don't you remember all of the good memories that we have?"

"Shut up, Tom," Star replied while glaring at the demon. "The only thing I remember is you being a jerk. And from the reports, you've only grown worse."

Tom smirked at her words. "After this little match, you'll be begging for me to take you back."

Conrad walked in the middle of the two. "This is a duel between the infamous Red Baron, Tom Lucitor, and the deputy of this town, Star Butterfly. The first draw will begin on my mark when I say, 'Draw!' If any one of you unholster your gun before that, you will be automatically disqualified. First bullet to hit the other's main body wins, legs and arms don't count. Each contestant can wear body armor if they wish to do so. If you aim for your opponent's head, Sheriff Marco will shoot your gun out of your hand and the draw will be restarted. Do the both of you understand?"

Tom and Star nodded in response.

"Good. Now, each participant must state their ability."

"My ability is 'Hellfire Bullets.' I can shoot projectiles that can melt through any type of armor," Tom stated.

"My ability is 'Stumble Dodge.' I can dodge any bullet that comes at me by falling down," Star said. The crowd murmured and whispered words of doubt that she could hear clearly.

The demon laughed at her words. "That's your excuse? Falling down being your ability?"

Conrad walked to where the audience was. "Are the two of you ready?"

Star and Tom nodded.

"First draw begins in 10… 9…"

"You should grab that armor while you can, Starship," Tom taunted. "I'm going to be generous to you. You don't have to worry about me using my ability against you."

"I don't need it. You're going to be the one that needs the armor."

"Ooh, feisty. You're just as I remember you, Star."

' _I'll just give her a love tap to end this quickly,_ ' Tom thought.

"3… 2… 1… Draw!"

In a speed that can only be described as lightning fast, the two grabbed their guns and aimed. Tom fired the gun first and the bullet went straight towards Star. Star didn't shoot but instead took a step forwards. As soon as Tom's gun fired, she tripped and fell towards her left side. The bullet from Tom's revolver went flying past her. While she was falling, Star aimed her gun and fired. Her bullet hit Tom square in the chest and he fell onto the ground from the force of the projectile. Finally, Star also fell onto the ground. All of those actions happened within one to two seconds. If you blinked, you would've missed it.

Conrad raised his left arm and yelled, "Star Butterfly wins!" He looked around at the crowds of people and saw that they could only stare in surprise.

A single applauding hand came from within the audience. Everyone turned to see who it was and saw that it was Jackie. Janna joined in, then Marco, then Conrad, then the rest of the crowd applauded and cheered for Star.

Star and Tom got up at the same time.

"I demand a rematch!" the demon shouted. "And this time with the sheriff!"

"There are no rematches for duels, Lucitor," the mayor responded. "Once you've lost, you've lost."

"She obviously cheated!"

"What proof do you have of that?"

"Look at her! There's no way someone like her can win against me!"

Marco growled at Tom's words. Conrad looked at the sheriff and shook his head. Marco crossed his arms and mumbled to himself.

The mayor turned his attention back to Tom. "Looks and skill do not have anything to do with one another. Unless you can gather substantial proof, you do not have a valid claim."

Tom growled and signaled his men, who reached for their guns. Marco, Star, Janna, and Conrad shot the outlaw's guns right out of their hands at the same time.

"Don't even think about it," Marco warned. "This town's gunslingers are more than your little gang can handle."

The four men raised their arms up in surrender. The sheriff and deputy turned their attention towards the demon.

"Give it up, Tom," Marco said. "You've already lost."

"This isn't over yet!" Tom snarled. He snapped his fingers and erupted into flames. Everyone covered their eyes to shield from the brightness. Afterwards, he was gone.

"What a coward," Star muttered.

The crowd went towards Star and lifted her up. While the townsfolk were cheering for her, Marco and Conrad went to arrest the four remaining outlaws.

* * *

During the evening, a feast was held to celebrate Star's victory.

The mayor made a speech in commemoration. "Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, we dedicate this feast to our beloved deputy, Star Butterfly."

"Here, here!" the crowd cheered.

Conrad continued, "She has taken down the infamous Red Baron by her own skills alone. And in doing so, she has rid the world of an outlaw who terrorised countless towns for his own sickened pleasure. This town will be forever known as the place that the Lucitor Gang was disbanded!"

He raised a glass to toast, "To Star Butterfly!"

The rest of the people followed. "To Star Butterfly!" they roared.

"And may she serve our town for countless years to come!" the mayor cheered. The crowds cheered along with him.

Star's face blushed from the attention that she was receiving. This day and evening would mark the biggest change of her life. From this moment, she would never be known as the girl who fell down too much. Now, she was the respected deputy of Echo Creek who took down the Red Baron.

Marco brought her into a side hug and smiled. She hugged and smiled back at him.

Any wrongdoers that dare to enter the town of Echo Creek should do well to behave themselves. Otherwise, they'll come face to face with Sheriff Marco Diaz and Deputy Star Butterfly.

Fin.

* * *

Star's ability: Stumble Dodge  
She falls down in order to evade any bullet that might hit her. She never falls the same way twice in a row. Conrad and Marco trained her to be able to shoot while falling from any direction to take advantage of it.

Marco has no ability and became a sheriff due to quick thinking and skill alone.

Tom's ability: Hellfire Bullets

He superheats a bullet and fires it out. The bullet burns at two thousand degrees celsius. The chamber around the bullet will melt, causing him to be unable to reload for that chamber.

Conrad's ability: Twitch Shot

Conrad shoots all six bullets of his gun in rapid succession with an accuracy near one hundred percent. The arm holding the gun will convulse in pain afterwards, leaving him vulnerable. Even though he has retired from being a gunslinger, he still has to receive massage therapy once every two weeks for his left arm.

Janna's ability: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

If a person is not looking at Janna directly, they will not notice if she steals their possessions.

* * *

AN: I hoped you all enjoyed this. I've always had the idea of a wild west story where the gunslingers have unique abilities that gave them a slight edge.


	6. Jackie Mermaid AU

Jackie Mermaid AU

* * *

A/N: This is my take on the 'Jackie's a mermaid' theory. I hope you enjoy. Reviews are appreciated (grammar, writing style, characters, enjoyment, etc.). Maybe even put in an idea you want to see, I don't know. Any and all stories are up for adoption if you'd like.

* * *

Jackie Lynn Thomas has always felt a weird connection to bodies of water. There was this unexplainable feeling of serenity whenever she visited the beaches or drifted on a boat in the middle of a lake. It was a sense of belonging, a sense that all of the fish and mammals in the water were calling out for her to join them. However, a feeling was just a feeling. She was a terrible swimmer for some reason. Her legs just did not obey what she wanted them to do. Instead of moving them up and down, she kept moving them from side the side. On the other hand, she had full control while skateboarding.

Her family planned a small trip to the beach one day. The Diaz family also planned to go to the same beach on the same day. Jackie hung out with Star and Marco for some time. Star suggested that they go swimming.

"Oh, no thanks," Jackie politely declined. "I'm not good at swimming."

"Don't worry, Marco can teach you," Star responded. "You don't have to worry about drowning with him around."

"Uh, well…"

Marco could see Jackie's discomfort on her face and went to dissuade Star. "We could do something else, like building sandcastles."

"Yeah, let's go build a sandcastle," Jackie grinned.

Star pulled Marco in and whispered, "What are you doing? This could be your chance to get close to her!"

Marco whispered back, "If she doesn't want to swim, then we shouldn't force her. Besides, she looked really uncomfortable with the idea."

The three were beginning the structure of what Star called "the greatest and biggest sandcastle the world has ever known." Jackie and Marco gathered buckets of sand and water while Star built the castle using a bit of magic.

"It's not cheating if it still obeys the laws of physics," the Mewnian princess stated.

As she was gathering sand, Jackie suddenly halted in her movement as a sound of sweet delight entered her ears. She turned and stared into the ocean's vast expanse. Sweet, soothing music that tempted her to walk right into the deep blue. She dropped her bucket of sand and made steps towards the ocean. Marco noticed and walked towards her.

"Hey, Jackie?" he asked.

She made no response and continued to walk forward.

"Jackie?" he asked once more while snapping his fingers in front of her face. Seeing no response again, he grabbed her shoulder. She blinked rapidly as she tried to get her bearings.

"You okay?" Marco asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied and smiled weakly. "I guess I zoned out a bit there."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. Besides, I have you to rescue me if I do anything weird."

There were no more incidents of the wonderful melody all through the afternoon. Star magicked up the sand castle; it stood proudly at measurements of four feet cubed. For one bold second, the palace of sand stood in all of its majesty. Then it promptly fell flat onto the ground. Star placed a sand tombstone of the mess and the three saluted to the fallen kingdom.

* * *

Inside her hotel room, Jackie flopped onto the bed. It had been an exhausting but fun afternoon for her. She knew that Star was energetic, but not that much. Star could be compared to an actual star in the sky, a glowing ball of energy that lasted for eons. Jackie rested her head on the pillow and yawned. Her parents decided to make dinner along with the Diaz's and that would be in about one to two hours.

' _A little nap wouldn't hurt,_ ' she thought. She closed her eyes and slowly drifted into sleep as the same melody she heard on the beach entered her ears. She fell asleep with a serene smile on her face.

 _Jackie wriggled her body around inside a cloth bundle, babbling and reaching her arms out to a woman. The woman smiled and picked her up into a hug. The woman hummed a hymn. Its soothing melody reached into baby Jackie's ears. That combined with the warmth of the hug cause Jackie to fall asleep._

 _..._

 _An explosion shook the entire place. The noise woke up Jackie and she cried out loud. Another woman from before pulled the baby into a hug._

" _Shh, shh, it's alright," the woman comforted Jackie. She placed the baby back down and performed a spell. Her hands had a green glow around them. She put her hands on Jackie's head and continued to comfort the baby. A tentacle whipped the woman and knocked her away. Behind the tentacle was a sea witch. Unknown words and blows were exchanged. The woman used a spell that pushed the sea witch back with a torrent of water._

 _The woman went towards Jackie and said, "Goodbye. And may you never return." And then- blackness._

Jackie slowly opened her eyes and got out of the bed. She looked at the time and saw that it was only six o' clock, one hour before dinner. She stretched her body while recollecting the dream she just had. It seemed too vivid and real to have been just a random dream. But then again, the brain could be fooled into thinking that something was real when it wasn't. She decided to chalk it up to her being exhausted.

Finishing with her stretches, she turned on the T.V. to see if anything good was on. She sat down on the couch and then the melody from back at the beach reached her ears again. Jackie thought it was just the T.V., but the music didn't stop when advertisements started to play. Curious to see what was the source of the song, she turned the T.V. off and listened carefully. The music seemed to be coming from all directions; it didn't get louder or softer when she turned her head around. Instead, it stayed the same volume no matter where her ears were pointed at.

She went out onto the patio and the same thing happened, the volume stayed the same no matter where she turned. Jackie closed her eyes and focused.

' _The beach,_ ' a voice whispered in her head. She opened her eyes in shock and looked all around her. Was there someone playing a trick on her? Maybe it there was a small device that played the music and sounds in the room. Yeah, that's it. Maybe Star thought it was a funny idea. But why would the princess do that? She didn't seem like the type. Marco didn't seem like type of person who would do such a thing either, but Jackie didn't know him well enough for that judgement.

Jackie exited the room. She figured that if the music was coming from the room, she wouldn't be able to hear it if she was outside. But the music didn't stop. Instead, it got minisculely louder as she walked down the stairs. Was there a device on her? She patted herself down and was unable to find anything. Either it was extremely small or it was a spell.

' _The beach._ ' The words repeated in her mind. The beach? How could any sound be able to reach from there all the way to the hotels? The distance between the two wasn't that big, but no music should be able to be heard from that far. The two words continued to echo in her mind. She gave up and decided to go down to the beach. She went out of the hotel, across some streets, and onto the sandy shore. The music incrementally got louder as she walked closer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Star creating sandcastles with her wand. There were some that stood against the wind and there were the unfortunate ones that fell upon their creation. Jackie smiled.

' _That music must've been Star trying to get me out to see the sandcastles,_ ' she reasoned.

She walked towards the princess and waved. "Hey Star!" she shouted.

Star turned and and smiled. "Oh, hey Jackie!" She waved back.

"So, what are you doing?" Jackie asked.

"I'm trying to find out a way to beat the world record for biggest sandcastle," Star replied and tapped her chin with the wand. "Did you know that the tallest sandcastle is forty eight feet and eight inches? If I could only add just one more inch, then I could beat it."

Jackie replied, "I'm sure if you keep at it, you can beat it."

"Thanks. So, what are you doing here?"

"I heard some music and-" Jackie stopped talking and turned towards the ocean. The sweet melody was back and this time she could clearly hear the source. She didn't know why or how, but the sounds were clearly coming from the ocean.

"Uh, Jackie?" Star questioned. She looked at the ocean as well but didn't see anything unusual. The sun wasn't setting just yet.

"Can you hear it?" Jackie asked.

Star held her hand up to her ear and listened. There were the sounds of the waves and the birds, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Hear what?" she asked.

"The music," Jackie replied.

' _Music?_ ' Star thought to herself. What was Jackie talking about? The closest thing to music was the noise that came from the radio on the hot dog stand some yards away. Or was she talking about the sounds of the ocean being _like_ music?

Jackie took steps into the water. "The wonderful music coming from the ocean," she said. "The soothing, sweet melody that tempts all towards the ocean."

"Are you feeling okay?" Star asked with a concerned tone. She knew Jackie was tired from traveling and then spending the entire afternoon playing, but this was something else entirely.

Jackie continued to walk and the water now reached to her knees. Out of nowhere, tentacles wrapped around her ankles and dragged her into the water. She let out a shriek as she realised what was happening.

"Jackie!" Star yelled out and ran towards the water. Eight Octopi jumped out from the shore and onto the land. They sat on their tentacles and shot out ink at Star from their mouths.

Star pointed her wand at them and shouted, "Winterstorm Hyperblow!" A blast of cold air came from the wand, freezing and blowing back the blotches of ink. The spell also froze three of the eight octopi. The octopi readied another attack and Star readied her wand.

Beneath the water, Jackie was being restrained by the tentacles. The appendages wrapped around her limbs, making it hard for her to struggle. Behind the eight arms was the sea witch that she had just seen in her dreams. The sea witch smiled at her with a vicious grin. That grin only grew bigger as one tentacle knocked Jackie in the stomach. The fourteen year old girl expelled all the air in her lungs. She was trying hard to not breathe in the water.

' _Star will rescue me,_ ' she thought. All she had to do was survive this. She was struck in the stomach again. Out of shock, she inhaled the water and it filled her lungs. Instead of drowning, she felt something happening to her body. Her lungs changed into gills. Her legs were replaced by a single fish tail, covered in emerald scales. The sea witch bared her teeth at Jackie.

"I've been waiting a long time for this," the octopus-lady said. She then used her tentacles to choke Jackie.

"Yes, I have been waiting a long time for this."

Jackie tried to pull the appendages away with her hands, but it was of no use. The sea witch was too strong and Jackie was losing strength with the loss of oxygen. Still, the now-mermaid continued to struggle. She didn't want to die like this, being choked by underwater by a sea witch. Why was this happening to her? What did she do to deserve this? And where was Star?

The last question was answered by Star yelling, "Super Rainbow Dolphin Slap!" A stream of dolphins and starfish rushed out of the wand and hit the sea witch. The sea witch was knocked away from Jackie. The mermaid gasped in breaths of water and coughed.

The octopus-woman growled at Star, "You dare interfere, landling?"

The princess formed an air bubble around her head and dived her head into the water. "Go away or I'll blast you to kingdom come!" she declared.

Star pulled Jackie behind her and readied the wand. The sea witch squirted ink into the water.

"Super Rainbow Dolphin Slap!" Star shouted. The dolphins and starfish went through the ink cloud, but Star aimed too high. The sea witch had propelled herself at Star. The force of the impact knocked the princess out of the water. The octopus-woman grabbed the shore with her tentacles and leaped up into the air, aiming for Star as the landing zone.

"Raspberry Ribbon Lasso!" Star yelled. A light-ribbon lasso tied up the sea witch in mid air. Star got up and swung the lasso in a full circle. The squid-woman was dragged on the sand before flying up into the air and thrown back into the ocean. The octopus-woman skipped on the water four times before sinking. Jackie stuck her head out from the water. Behind Star were dozens of unconscious octopi.

"Come on!" Star signaled Jackie to follow her. Further along the beach were rocks that stood above the water. The mermaid climbed onto the boulders with Star's help.

"Are you okay?" the princess asked.

"I think so," Jackie nodded.

"Good. Sorry I couldn't help you sooner. I was busy trying to fight those squid things."

"That's okay." An awkward silence followed.

"So, uh, you're a mermaid now, huh?" Star asked, trying to come up with conversation.

"Mmh," Jackie responded. She looked at her wet t-shirt. Her shorts somehow disappeared into nowhere. The good thing was that she was wearing a bra.

"I- hmm. Oh, I know who can help you!" With a pink cloud and a poof, Star's Magic Instruction Book appeared and fell onto the ground.

She opened the book and said, "Glossaryck!" The pages turned themselves until it reach where the blue genie-like creature was.

"What can I do for you, my princess?" he asked while bowing.

"What can you tell me about mermaids?"

"Well, mermaids are a combination of a human upper body and a fish lower body. They reproduce the same way as fish do-"

"Okay, nevermind," Star interrupted him. She pointed at Jackie. "What can you tell me about her?"

Glossaryck turned to the mermaid. "Oh, that's an Atlantean mermaid you've got there. I thought they all died out."

"What do you mean died out?"

"The underwater Kingdom of Atlantis fell a couple of years back. The reports said that rescue teams could not find any survivors in the wreck."

"Well, she was a human and now she's a mermaid."

"Hmm, disguising her as a human. A decent enough trick, I suppose."

"Is there any way to turn her back?"

"There's nothing that we can do; the mermaid has to be the one to perform the spell. It's simple enough, all she has to do is imagine her tail becoming legs and magic should do the rest."

"Did you get that, Jackie?" Star asked.

Jackie nodded and closed her eyes. The lower half of her body began to glow green. The grow glow stop and then… nothing happened. Jackie looked helplessly towards Star.

"Glossaryck?" the princess questioned.

"She doesn't have enough magic to use the spell," the blue genie replied.

"What?"

"It seems that someone started the process of giving her their magic ability and then stopped. As a result, she has a limited amount of magic." He turned towards Star. "Did she just turn into one?"

Star nodded.

"Turning into a mermaid also takes magic for the transformation to take place. The majority of it must've been used during then."

"So now what?"

"We have to find the one who started the process and have them resume it."

"Unfortunately, that mermaid is long gone!" the sea witch announced. The three on land turned to see the octopus-woman swimming near the shore. Star pointed the wand at her.

"And I should know; I'm the one that ate her, after all," the witch continued.

"Ate her?" Star questioned.

"Mermaids contain their magic in their lower halves." Glossaryck answered. "By eating said half, you could theoretically gain the mermaid's magic. Sailors have tried it before, but it didn't work."

Jackie's stomach turned. That… thing ate the woman she saw in her dream? And what about her parents? Did the sea witch eat them too?

"That's because it only works on sea creatures," the sea witch informed them.

"Who are you anyways?" Star asked.

"The name's Ursula, landling. And I'm the one who sank Atlantis." She turned towards Jackie. "You know, I've been waiting fourteen years for your return. That stupid queen put her magic in you. She knew that it would give me an incomplete magic pool. But now here you are to give me what I've always wanted."

"You won't be able to get to her!" the princess shouted.

"Oh, come on," Ursula said. "I only need the lower half. You can keep the rest. And besides, not even Rhombulus could stop me. What makes you think that you could?"

"Glossaryck?" Star looked at the blue genie.

"She's telling the truth," Glossaryck confirmed. "I even had to punish him for it."

"Oh, ho ho ho, music to my ears!" Ursula exclaimed. "Even all of the Magic High Commission fell to me, and with barely any magic too!" She looked at Star's expression. "Don't be so surprised, kiddo. The MHC was created by an idiot with an inflated ego. The so-called master of magic is nothing more than a child playing god. He created the commission, but there was one fatal flaw that he missed; put them under the water and they became slow and inefficient. I even evaded Rhombulus for three days straight until he crystallized an entire reef out of frustration and then left."

Ursula fake-cried and wiped the imaginary tears from her eyes. "Oh, what an environmental disaster that was! Those poor innocent marine life who were unjustly crystallized because of a temper tantrum from a blockhead!"

"Save your tears for when I beat you up!" yelled Star.

"Really, _you're_ going to beat me up?" the sea witch taunted. "You couldn't lay a finger on me even if you tried!"

"I'll sink you to the bottom!"

"Hmmph. What arrogant words from an ignorant girl. Tell you what, since you're so confident, let's play a little game. First one to beg for mercy loses. And since I'm such a nice person, I'll give you time to prepare. I'll even allow you to bring that mermaid along as well as any other people. But it won't matter even if you bring fifty of your landlings. I'll take them all out eventually. How's that sound?"

"That sounds just fine. But I'm not going to be the one that loses."

"We'll see about that." Ursula turned back and swam into the ocean.

"Star, the only way for that mermaid to transform back into a human is to get the sea witch to give up her magic," Glossaryck said. "Either she gives it up willingly or the mermaid has to eat her heart."

Star cracked her knuckles and replied, "Then I'll just have to be extremely convincing."

"One more thing. I'd advise you to take the mermaid along. Sea witches are notoriously hard to catch in the water."

"I can handle it myself," Star argued. She cast an air bubble around her head and dived into the water.

Jackie looked at Glossaryck.

"Eh, she could probably do it by herself," he shrugged. "It was just a precaution."

"Are you sure?" Jackie asked.

"Star's always been this strong headed. She's always come out on top so it'll probably be fine."

Star looked at the vast amounts of water ahead of her, waiting for the sea witch to pop up. A quick spell allowed her to float in the water at whatever level she wanted to. Better than walking on the ocean floor. The disadvantage was that Ursula could now attack from below. Star scanned the area around her, wand pointed and ready.

The sea witch silently waited from behind a rock, looking for an opportune time to strike. When Star had her back turned to Ursula, the sea witch struck. Moving away from the rock, she propelled herself right at Star. The Mewnian princess's danger sense flared up and Star turned to where Ursula was.

"Narwhal Blast!" A group of narwhals flew at the sea witch, who dodge it by rolling away. As Ursula overshot Star's position, she sprayed ink into the water. Star swam away to relocate and readied her wand again. The sea witch hid behind the cloud of ink and listened for Star's location. Finding it, she was ready to strike. Before Ursula could do so, something sharp poked her back.

"Ow!" she yelled. She turned around and found the group of narwhals that Star had summoned. The sea witch knocked back the animals with her tentacles.

Star, hearing the commotion, swam around the ink cloud and found Ursula fighting off her creations. Smiling, she used the spell again.

"Narwhal Blast! Narwhal Blast! Narwhal Blast!" The creatures split up and surround the sea witch, making her unable to escape. As Ursula tried to knock them away to get out, the narwhals would attack her from all sides and surrounded her again. She moved an inch, they moved an inch. But for some reason, the ones at the bottom moved aside and formed an opening.

"Rainbow tether!" Star yelled. A beam of rainbow came from the wand and hit the sea witch. Seven ropes tied her up to seven poles, each rope matching the color of the pole. The poles were seemingly endless in height as they reached the bottom of the ocean floor. Ursula struggled against the ropes, but to no avail.

"Give it up," Star said. "You can't escape." In response, the sea witch squirted ink at Star.

"Super Geyser Windstorm!" A blast of water rushed out of the wand and cleared up the ink. "Give up your magic or I'll make you give it up!"

"Oh, what are you going to do, landling?" Ursula taunted. "Are you going to suck the magic out of me?"

Star tapped her chin with the wand. "That's not a bad idea. There's a spell like that, but it renders its victims in a coma-like state. But then that might be a good thing since you can't hurt anyone anymore."

"You're bluffing!"

"Nope." Star pointed the wand at Ursula and charged up the spell. "Say goodbye."

"Wait! If you put me into a coma, I'll die! The sharks will come and eat me! Doesn't that make you feel bad?"

Star thought about it for a moment. "Hmm… Not really no." Star thought about something else and cancelled the spell.

"Oh, but if you're in a coma then you can't pay for your crimes."

"Right, right!" Ursula nodded in agreement.

"I'll just alter the spell a bit then. Mystic Magic Transfer!" A cyan wisp went from the sea witch's heart to the wand. As magic was drained from her body, Ursula became smaller and smaller. Instead of being put into a coma-like state, she would now have to suffer the indignant size. The rainbow tether spell adjusted the ropes' sizes automatically to keep Ursula tied up. After all the magic was drained, the sea witch was a mere two inches in height.

"And now, for your punishment," said Star.

"Isn't this punishment enough?" asked Ursula. "I've learned my lesson! I won't attack any other mermaids for their magic! I can't even do that anymore!"

"You ate the tails of mermaids while they were still alive. You made an entire civilization fall for your own lust for power. This punishment isn't enough. If I release you now, you'll just be eaten up. Your punishment must be endless."

* * *

Star swam up to the surface where Jackie and Glossaryck were waiting.

"I got it!" she waved her wand cheerfully. She aimed it at Jackie and shouted, "Mystic Magic Transfer!" A cyan wisp from the wand flew into Jackie's body, resulting in a glow of the same color. After it was done, Jackie felt some sort of power flowing through her body.

"Try it now!" Star said.

Jackie closed her eyes and envisioned her tail turning into legs. A green glow enveloped her lower body. The glow disappeared and the tail was replaced by her legs. Thankfully, the clothing that she had on were still there.

"Thanks Star," the mermaid smiled.

"You're welcome."

"So what happened to the sea witch?"

"Oh, she won't be bothering us or anyone else at all."

"That's good." Jackie looked at the ground with a sad expression.

"What's wrong?" asked Star.

"It's - It's just that… why did this have to happen to me? Why do I have to be a mermaid? Why can't I just be Jackie Lynn Thomas, a regular Earth girl?"

Star pulled Jackie into a side hug and said, "We don't get to choose what we're born as but we can make the best of it."

"But Atlantis is gone now. Am I the only mermaid left alive? And what about my parents? Are they alive or did that thing eat them as well? Is Jackie even my real name?"

"Don't worry about it so much," Star comforted the mermaid. "There must be some sort of record kept. You heard what Glossaryck said, there were reports for the fall. So there must be some files in other dimensions that can help you. We'll help you find out what happened."

"Thank you," Jackie smiled with tears in her eyes.

At the bottom of the ocean floor stood a round, smooth, metal sphere. Inside of the ball was a sea witch trying to get out of it. This was the punishment that Star had decided for Ursula. The ball had microscopic pores that allowed water and nutrients to enter and exit freely. It kept Ursula alive, but that was it. No light could enter, nor sound. There was nothing but darkness and silence. The sea witch could somewhat move in the ball, but was unable to gain any speed. Eventually, she gave up and was left to her own thoughts. Then, after some more time passed, she would stop thinking as well. Stuck in a lonely metal ball at the bottom of the ocean for all eternity.

* * *

AN:

The original fight scene was supposed to have Star, Marco, and Jackie work together. Marco would walk on water and Judo-throw Ursula back into the water. Jackie would use supersonic bubbles to stun Ursula. Star would rip of Ursula's heart at the end. The heart would be boiled in a soup to get all the magic out and Jackie would have to drink that. Cancelled for obvious reasons.

The second revised scene was to have Star and Jackie work together without Marco as Ursula went to the bottom of the ocean instead, making Marco quite useless. Plus Jackie wouldn't have wanted any more people to know about her being a mermaid.

This was the final product as I thought that Jackie would be too shocked to even be able to fight. She just turned into a mermaid as well so she wouldn't be able to swim good enough to help. (I always get lazy at the end)

Being kept in isolation without any type of stimulus is a fate worse than death itself, isn't it?


	7. Metal Gear AU part 1

Metal Gear AU (part 1)

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AN: Feedback and ideas are appreciated

* * *

 _ **Intro:**_

Sometime after Queen Moon Butterfly used her "Darkest Spell" on Toffee, the monsters worked on a project. What they were building was a Metal Gear - a bipedal war machine capable of launching nukes from anywhere in the world, the missing link between artillery and infantry. Thankfully, the monsters did not have the technology required for such an ambition. They had spied on the Earth dimension for some time and gathered all the necessary blueprints. Technology and magic are eerily like one another. It took a while, but the monsters could substitute some of the parts required using magic. Instead of having the extremely thick armor, they enhanced the metal using strengthening magic. Instead of launching a nuke, they would be able to launch an energy ball capable of destroying an area up to ten kilometers in radius.

This Metal Gear had two launch codes held by the lead scientist, Stephen Walker (Americanized name). Walker, unknown to the other monsters, was a Mewnian sympathizer. He was the only one allowed access of the codes. Before the project could be completed, the codes had already been inputted and could not be changed. His knowledge of the codes could not be erased by him simply dying; there was necromancer magic that could bring his body back to life for them to get the codes. The only way was to pass on the knowledge from his brain onto another's. He snuck into an infirmary on Mewni and passed on the code to a baby. He went into another dimension and did the same. After that, he killed himself. He knew that the monsters would come for him so he drowned himself in the ocean of the unknown dimension.

The Metal Gear just stood there in all its glory, unable to be used without the codes. The project was abandoned after that. However, there were some who did not lose hope and wanted to bring it back alive to take revenge on the Mewnians. They would find where the codes were and bring devastation to the world.

* * *

 _ **Metal Gear T Specifications:**_

A large crystal inside can power up a large bubble-shield to protect itself.

The thinnest armor (where the driver is) is equivalent of 7 cm of steel plating.

A rail launcher is on top of it all, used to deliver the devastating magic blasts.

Two 20mm guns that fire magic blasts on each side.

* * *

 _ **Characters Thus Far:**_

Star Butterfly: After being charged with a crime, the interdimensional communities demanded justice. At the age of fourteen, she was sentenced to four years in Saint Olga's. This is her second year.

Snake: Sent to Saint Olga's to rescue Star.

Campbell: Presumably a man from a division of Mewni's military. Hired Snake for one million gold coins.

* * *

Princess Star Butterfly was currently strapped onto a chair. Her mind was dizzy and she wanted to throw up from the sensation. But she didn't; after all, it would be unladylike. The room that she was in was used for splitting minds. Theoretically, there is a "soul" within every single one of us. The soul contains our ideas, ideals, beliefs, etc. Splitting minds require the soul to be destroyed. The beliefs that are deemed unpleasant are put into another "soul." One of the souls is then put as the dominant one while the other is sealed away.

The first time she was sent to this room, it was because of her resistance. She resisted all the training that this school had for her: tea parties, singing with birds, curtsying. And so, her mind was split into two: the perfect princess and the rebellious one. When the procedure was done, a guard asked her a question, "Who are the patriots?"

Unable to answer, she merely apologized and went to her room. The second time she was sent to the room it was because a guard had found her misbehaving. Once again, after the procedure was done, a guard asked her, "Who are the patriots?"

And once again, she was unable to answer. They cycle continued on and on. Going to the room, being asked by the guard, unable to answer, and then being sent to the room once more. Star had lost count of how many times she was sent to the room she currently was in. The more times she was sent in, the sloppier Olga's handiwork became. The disobedient side was not properly sealed anymore. The proper side and the other began to talk to one another.

The other wanted revenge on Saint Olga and the school and on her parents for sending her to such a place. The proper side wanted to go back to Mewni and perform her duties. Both were equal in dominance of the mind and body. Both knew that their body wouldn't survive if they fought against each other. They formed a truce for now to plan a way to get out of the prison.

Star was panting on the chair as the straps on her wrists were released. Olga sighed. A beep sound came from the door, which had unlocked. A guard came inside and saluted Olga.

"Headmistress," he said. "You are needed at room two-oh-seven. A princess there is yelling about how she wants to be a free individual."

"Hmm, the Rosa girl?" Olga asked. "All right." She and her two guards went to the exit.

She turned back and told the single guard. "Make sure the Butterfly gets to her room without any problems."

"Yes, ma'am," the guard nodded. After making sure nobody else was around, the guard closed the door and took off his mask. He had brown hair, brown eyes, and a mole on his face.

"My name is Snake," he told the princess. "I'm here to get you out."

"Get me out?" Star asked.

"Yeah, someone from Mewni hired me to get you out."

"Who?"

"Somebody named Campbell," Snake answered. "You know him?" Star shook her head. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter anyways. I'm still here to get you out."

"Why should I trust you?" the princess questioned. "You just come in here and tell me you're going to get me out for no reason. This is some test from Saint Olga, isn't it? Well, the answer is 'no,' I'm not going with you."

Snake grumbled and reached into his pockets. He bought out a card and showed it to her. "There, you believe me now?" The card was identification for a mercenary group, "Outer Heaven." The name read, "Marco Ubaldo Diaz." All the other information was about height, date of birth, blood type, etc. He put the card back into a pocket.

"I still don't know the person who hired you," she argued with crossed arms.

Snake threw his hand up in the air. "Does it matter? It's still somebody from Mewni, right?"

"Are my parents involved?"

Snake shook his head. "No, they have no idea. That Campbell guy is from somewhere in Mewni's military, that's for sure."

"So some guy who I don't know has a plan to rescue me but my parents do nothing, huh?"

"It's not that simple," Snake answered. "Apparently, your parents are under the gaze of the interdimensional community. If they know even a sliver of what was happening, the political climate would be a disaster. That guy's already putting a lot at stake for even coming to me with this mission."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Star cried. "That some random guy is risking his life to help me while my parents just sit at their thrones like cowards?"

"Well, no…. It's just that…. It's not as simple as your parents not caring. I mean, if they could do something they probably would've, right?"

Star harrumphed.

Snake sighed, "Anyways I need to get you out before the monster invasion starts."

"Monster invasion?"

"Yeah, it's what that Campbell guy said. There's a planned monster invasion to get you." A beep came from the door and both stopped talking. Snake put his mask back on and faced the door. The door opened, but nobody came in. The two stared at the open entrance with confused expressions. A chilling sensation came from behind Snake. Someone had sneaked up behind him unnoticed. A man armed with a pistol came into the room.

"Get down!" he yelled. Snake grabbed the princess and dived to the ground. The unknown man pulled the trigger at the assailant behind Snake. The assailant pulled out a knife and deflected the bullets.

"Vamp!" the man with a gun yelled.

"Our paths cross once again," Vamp responded. The man pulled out an assault rifle and shot at Vamp. He jumped up across the room while the man went in and kept on shooting. Vamp kept dodging the bullets as he danced his way out of sight. The man grumbled and lowered the rifle.

"So you're the one Campbell hired, huh?" he questioned.

Snake took off his mask, "Yeah, who are you?"

"Name's Pliskin, Iroquois Pliskin. The old man sent me in to support you."

Snake frowned. "Support?"

"Yeah," Pliskin answered. "Looks like you need it too."

Snaked looked at Pliskin. Pliskin looked to be older and experience, something that baffled the mercenary. "Why didn't Campbell just send you in instead of me?" he asked.

The older man shrugged. "Who knows. Anyways, it's important that you get the princess out of here before the invasion starts." Right after the sentence, the entire place shook as the school was bombarded from the outside. Red lights began to blink all over the place and a siren blared through the speakers.

A voice from the speakers said, "Attention, please remain in your rooms for the time being. Repeat, please remain in your rooms for the time being. This is not an emergency."

Pliskin ran out the room and to the left. Snake put on the guard mask, held Star's hand and went after him. Looking out a window at the end of the hallway, they could see monsters - a lot of them. Lion-headed ones, ones that looked like swamp creatures, they mostly looked like animals that took on a humanoid shape.

"You know how to use a gun?" Pliskin questioned. Snake nodded. Pliskin pulled out a pistol and some ammo and handed it to him.

"What about me?" Star asked. "I can fight too."

"Sorry, but that's all I can spare," the older man apologized. "There's probably something you can grab from the armory. It's on the west wing on the second floor. But the most important thing is getting you out of here."

"Got any plans?" Snake asked.

"There's a magic crystal in the tower to the northwest that prevents dimensional scissors from working when in range of the school. You can either take out the crystal or sneak your way past the monsters. None of the options are good either. If you take out the crystal, then that means monsters will be able to pour in from anywhere. Sneaking past will be hard as some monsters have infrared sight and/or a good sense of smell."

"Sneaking sounds easier," Snake said. "What about the other girls."

"Getting any type of transport here is going to be hard. Let's just work on getting our priority done."

Star crossed her arms and declared, "I'm not going anywhere."

"What?" Snake questioned.

"I'm not going anywhere until the others are safe," she announced.

Snake groaned and replied sarcastically, "Oh, yeah, that's such a good idea. Why don't we just get ourselves killed by facing the entire army head-on while we're at it?"

"It's doable," Pliskin said. "And besides, I don't think we'll be able to change her mind." He turned to Star and asked, "Speaking of minds, I thought they split yours."

"They did," the princess answered. "We've made a temporary truce with each other."

"Mind split?" Snake inquired.

Pliskin shook his head. "Don't mind that for now." Outside the school were guards armed with crossbows, muskets, lances, and other types of weapons. "Head towards the armory on the second floor and get some weapons. After that, round up the princesses in one place. I'll head to the tower where the crystal is kept. Tell me when you've got everyone and I'll destroy the thing. Should be enough time to get out before the monsters figure it out."

"Get out to where?" Star asked. Her eyes changed from bright blue to red to light blue and back to bright blue.

Snake answered, "Shouldn't you go back to-" Pliskin's right hand covered his mouth. The older man shook his head.

"We'll figure it out later," Pliskin said. "Right now we need to focus on our objectives. Snake, got a radio?" The mercenary nodded. "Good, my frequencies one-four-oh-point-eight-zero. Call me if you got any questions."

"Right." Snake nodded. He and Star ran to the armory. Pliskin shook his head and made a radio call of his own.

"Otacon, you there?"

* * *

 _ **To the armory:**_

"So, why'd your parents send you here?" Snake asked nonchalantly. "You don't look like you'd do anything that bad to warrant being sent to this hellhole."

"Don't know," Star shrugged and replied without emotion. "Something about an explosion."

"An explosion?"

"Yeah, an explosion. Apparently killed twelve people as well."

"So, did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Did you..." Snake's question died as the princess gave him a look that clearly said, 'Are you serious?' He shook his head. "Never mind."

The two sneaked around the blaring hallways and the announcement that came from the sirens. Guards were running down to the front gates to stop the monster invasion. A few guards that stayed behind were taken out by Snake and Star. Although the entire place was drowning with noise, there was an uncomfortable silence between the two fighters. Snake grabbed a keycard and unlocked the armory.

Inside were all types of weapons as seen used by the guards at the front of the school: claymore swords, crossbows, katanas, muskets, you get the point. All the weapons were mounted on the walls with metal hooks. Star grabbed one of the crossbows and handed it to Snake.

"This crossbow automatically reloads," she explained. "It's heavy so be careful with it." She grabbed a claymore sword for herself. She grabbed ten more of those swords and strapped them all to her back. Snake wasn't so sure about using a crossbow, so he grabbed a musket as well. He slung the strap on the long gun on his left shoulder.

Snake was surprised that she could even carry all of that. "Uh…. I don't think we need that many swords. And if we do, the ranged weapons might be better suited for fighting monsters."

"I'm using the extras as throwing tools," she responded.

He pointed to a collection of spears on the wall. "Wouldn't those be better?"

She shook her head. "Nah, the impaling effect isn't nearly as good."

"Okay, then, let's go rescue some princesses!" Snake yelled with a fake happy voice.

' _What the hell did I get myself into?_ ' he thought. He slung the crossbow's strap over his right shoulder and bought out his pistol. Seeing no more guards that were conscious around, he exited the armory and moved to the nearest living quarters of a princess. Star followed him.

Meanwhile, Pliskin sat inside a cardboard box equipped anti-infrared and anti-smell equipment. His scent was overwhelmed by the smell of flowers. It was a neat trick at first but by now his nose grew tired of it. Outside, rows of monsters rushed into the school, the cardboard box unnoticed.


	8. No Strings Attached

No Strings Attached

* * *

The red string of fate is a myth that originates from East Asia. A red string is tied from one person to another. Those who the strings connect are destined to be lovers. Cupid is more western. The god of attraction, love, desire, and affection, shooting arrows at people that fill them with an uncontrollable desire. Even with these myths told repeatedly through generations, they could not have prepared Marco Diaz for a firsthand experience with an angel of love.

Marco Diaz was fourteen; his only real friends were Alfonzo and Ferguson. He was never popular, with most his classmates mocking him for being the "safe kid." From kindergarten and onwards, he only had eyes for one girl, Jackie Lynn Thomas. She, in his honest opinion, was the coolest girl in the school. The only thing that stopped him from asking her out was himself. Full of self-doubt and anxiety, he could only mutter hellos and goodbyes to her. Oh, how he wished he could look cool in front of her.

Marco was currently walking with his friends. Ferguson was trying to introduce him to some anime while Alfonzo babbled on about Star Trek. His two friends fought over the mediums of the screen: animation and live action. Marco spent most of his time either practicing karate or watching and making fun of ads. Unable to add to the current conversation, he just walked along.

Out from the corner of his eye came Jackie on her skateboard. He momentarily froze and remembered his plan. Today was the big day of his grand plan. Away with the days of his shyness for today he would move from muttering to a full volume greeting. Moving to the regular position where he stood, in the way of Jackie's usual skateboard route, he prepared his throat for the glorious greeting that would come.

"Hey, Jackie!" he waved at her.

Jackie stopped her skateboard and greeted him back, "Hey, Marco. What's up with you?"

Diaz felt his heart skip a beat and his mind clouding. This was a dream come true for him. His heart beat faster and faster as he came up with an answer, "Uh, nothing much right now." He mentally slapped himself. What kind of a response was that? He needed something, anything was better than those words he'd just uttered.

"I've been working on my karate," he said seconds later. "Might get my red belt soon." His soul triumphantly roared. This was it - his first real conversation with his crush. Pass this and there would only be a few hurdles left until he became her boyfriend. Maybe even more….

"Cool," Jackie gave him a thumb up. "I've been practicing with a few tricks with the board. See you around, Marco." She waved at him as she took off.

He waved back with a huge smile. He had finally done it, he- His thoughts were interrupted as an object flew by him. He didn't realize it at first, but his head instinctively moved. The object hit the floor instead. Upon closer inspection, Marco saw that it was an arrow. Its head was a pink heart, the feathers were amazing soft upon touch, and the shaft was regular wood. He looked around. There was nobody near him now. He turned around and saw something that made his brain stop.

Behind him was a young woman that looked his age. Flowing blonde hair that reached her knees, bright blue eyes, beautiful skin. She was wearing a white dress. Her hands held a bow. A quiver of arrows was strapped on her. On her back were wings - Marco wasn't sure if they were real or not. He shook his head and pushed those thoughts away. He didn't know who she was.

"Excuse me?" Marco came closer to her and asked. He noticed that she had a frown on her face. Her eyes stared at the ground, but not at any real thing on the floor. Her eyes were vacant, as if deep in thought.

"Miss?" His question seemed to have missed her ears. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked right at him in shock.

"Are you all right?" She looked to him like she was panicking. "Hey, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you." He put his hands up as a sign of peace.

"You can see me?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked back. "Of course I can see you."

"You're not supposed to see me," she said with a type of firmness that only a person who truly believed in that statement could've said it with.

"What are you-"

Marco was interrupted with Ferguson shouting from behind him, "There you are! We were wondering where you went." Diaz's two friends approached him.

"Who were you talking to?" Alfonzo asked.

"Huh?" Marco turned to the angel and waved his hands at her. Alfonzo's and Ferguson's expressions remained unchanged. "I was, uh, practicing some pick-up lines for the next time I see Jackie." His buddies were obviously in on the joke. Well, he wasn't going to let them fool him, no sirree.

Ferguson slapped him on the back. "Don't worry, even if you fail you'll still have us!"

Alfonzo looked at his watch and said, "Class starts in five minutes, we'd better hurry!" The three made a run for it.

While in mid-sprint, Marco heard the girl say, "I'll be at the fountain after school." He turned towards the voice and saw her phase through another person. He turned his head back in the direction of his run.

' _I hope I'm not going crazy,_ ' he thought.

* * *

After school, the girl was where she said she would be. The two of them were alone at the spot.

"So… what's your name?" Marco asked.

"It's Star. Star Butterfly, angel of love, at your service."

"Angel of love?" he questioned skeptically.

"Yep, I am part of a group that specializes in having people fall in love!"

"Is that why you're wearing the costume?"

"It's not a costume!" Star huffed. "I am an angel of love, a descendant of cupid, for your information."

"Really, so those wings are real?"

"Yes!" The wings moved and pushed her upwards. The angel flew a few feet off the ground. "You see? Completely real." Her wings stopped and she dropped to the ground, knees bending as she did so. Marco winced thinking about how painful to the knees that landing was.

"So what's an angel of love doing here?" Marco asked.

"We operate all over the world, shooting arrows at people to make them fall in love," she replied. "Sometimes, there are people, like you, who don't have any red strings attached to anyone. It's our duty to have them fall in love with another without a red string."

"If your arrow had hit me…." Marco motioned for Star to complete the sentence.

"You would've fallen in love with that girl in front of you," she said.

Marco frowned at that. "But I'm already in love with Jackie," he argued. "What good would that arrow have done me? Make me more in love with her?" At Star's confused expression, he added, "Jackie was the girl in front of me."

"Well, it doesn't matter because you don't have a red string attached to you," she responded. "Without it, you can't experience 'true love.'"

"Okay, let's say that arrow hit me and I can experience 'true love' with Jackie," Marco started. "According to you, Jackie doesn't have a red string, right?" The angel nodded. "Then how can she experience this 'true love' with me?"

"What a silly question," Star laughed. "I would've shot her with my arrow later with her looking at you, of course!"

"Isn't that a bit dishonest?" he asked. "To force people to fall in love with each other instead of letting them find it on their own?"

"What are you talking about?" she inquired with a frown.

"I mean… Jackie deserves someone who wants to get to know her, for who she really is. And I think I'm that someone. Shooting an arrow at her so that she falls in love with me bypasses that step."

"Then how are you supposed to experience true love?"

"What's the difference between 'true love' and regular 'love?'"

"True love is, uh, well, when you, uh…." Star trailed off. Marco raised an eyebrow.

Seeing that, she exclaimed, "It's not something that I can just explain to you! You have to feel it for yourself."

"What about you?" Marco questioned.

"What about me?"

"Have you experienced this 'true love?'"

"No," Star shook her head. "Angels can't experience that, or at least can't find our own soulmates like that. Whoever is able to see others' red strings are fated to be unable to see their own."

"That sucks," Marco commented.

"That's the rules," she shrugged. She took out an arrow from her quiver and put it on the string of her bow. "Nice talking to you, but you need to be shot for me to complete my mission."

"You don't _have_ to shoot me, do you? Theoretically, all you need to do is to make sure Jackie and I fall in love with each other."

"... I guess…"

"Therefore, you could complete your mission by helping me charm Jackie," Marco argued. "And as for that 'true love' stuff, you can shoot us when Jackie does fall in love with me. Only if she likes me because of who I am and not anything else." Seeing Star about to argue, he quickly added, "Think about it. We humans don't just fall in love without consequences. You shoot two people to fall in love. What if they can't get along? What if their parents or friends can't get along? You can't just force people to fall in love and expect it to work."

"..." Star remained silent as she thought about what he said. Her job was a simple one: shoot people when they're looking at the one that they were supposed to fall in love with. She never had to think about the other stuff. None of the other angels even mentioned anything about these problems. "...I guess…" was her response.

"Right, so you can be my wingman, or wingwoman," Marco said.

"Uh, right!" she exclaimed. "Let me find a guide for that and I'll get back to you." Marco put his right hand in front. Star looked at him with a confused expression.

"Friends?" he asked.

"Friends?"

"No strings attached?" he joked.

Star smiled at that. "All right, Marco. No strings attached." The two shook hands.

* * *

Fun Fact: Cupid is sometimes used to represent how impulsive love can be.


	9. Whoops

Yugi-oh - Here's your request, kinda. My brain's processing unit has been overheating for the past couple of days and I couldn't come up with an actual adventure.

* * *

Whoops

* * *

A pink cloud dissipated away, revealing Marco's transformed body. Star had been working on a new transformation spell and had wanted to try it out, which Marco reluctantly agreed to. It was a simple spell, or at least Star had said it was. The spell would transform Marco into a werewolf. There was no other reason for creating such a spell other than the princess thinking it would be "cool."

Marco examined his new body. However, it was not what he had expected. Instead of arms covered with hair, his arms had absolutely no hair on them, not even the small ones. In addition, the arms were a bluish-gray color. For his fingers, they weren't claws. Well, they _were_ claws, but they seemed a lot more… reptilian? They weren't the claws of any mammal, that's for sure. Speaking of reptilian, Marco noticed an extension on his face. When he touched it with his right hand, he confirmed it was a part of him. He opened his mouth and the snout moved.

He panicked and shouted, "Star?!" He extended the lone vowel in her name. The Mewnian princess was grimacing as she looked at her best friend. It was bad enough she botched up the spell. Now, she had turned him into a monster. And not just any monster! She had turned him into an exact replica of Toffee!

"Uh, hold on!" Star grabbed a notebook from an adjacent table and hurriedly flipped through the pages. Some time ago, Marco advised Star to write any new spells she made up to remember the words that needed to be said. This would ensure she remembered the spell's words for further usage or refining and could add the spell to the big book word for word without mistakes. Star flipped through all the pages and was now looking at the back cover of the notebook.

"Well?" Marco asked in anticipation.

Star tilted her head up to look directly at him and answered, "I didn't write it down."

Her words drifting into Marco's ear and his mind began to process them. He knew that it wasn't such a big problem as Star always found a way to solve any problems within a few days, at max. However, that did mean he would have to go to school in this form. He started to imagine the reactions at school. Janna, of course, would be cool with it and continue to bug him. But what about Jackie? What if he scared her away forever, ruining all chances of him being with her? And the police - what were they going to do? Sirens blared inside his head as he envisioned SWAT units kicking down the door and dragging him into a secret facility where they would conduct experiments on him: injecting unknown fluids into him, cutting open his body-

"But it's okay, we can just ask Glossaryck!" Star's words snapped Marco out of his imagined nightmare scenario. He mentally berated himself for forgetting about the little blue man in the book.

He sighed, "I'll go get the pudding." When it came to helping Star with her magic, Glossaryck was reliable and helpful. The two had found out that he became even more helpful when pudding was involved, especially chocolate pudding. Marco walked towards the stairs.

"You do that," Star commented. She entered her room and approached the enormous bed inside the gigantic room. Kneeling on the ground, she reached under the bed. Moments later, she found what she was looking for. With each hand gripping a side of the book, she pulled it out. Opening the book, she flipped to the page where Glossaryck usually hung out at, 667. At the page, Glossaryck floated above the book.

"What can I do for you, princess?" he asked, bowing.

Marco went down into the kitchen area as fast as he could while remaining silent. As he was sneaking, he hoped that nobody opened the front door. It was times like this when Marco was glad his parents weren't home as much. He opened the refrigerator, grabbed a cup of chocolate pudding, and hurried back upstairs. Each cup of pudding had a plastic spoon on top of it, something Marco did when he was bored. He stopped at the entrance of Star's room and looked at the scene with Glossaryck bowing. Star grabbed Marco by the shoulders and pushed him closer to the floating blue man.

"How do I turn him back?" Star asked.

Glossaryck squinted his eyes and rubbed his chin. "I would love to answer that," he said. "But, unfortunately, I am quite famished at the moment. If only there was some sort of cuisine that would alleviate my hunger."

Marco and Star shared a look. The teenage boy opened the lid and scooped some of the pudding with a spoon.

"Ah," Glossaryck opened his mouth wide open like a fish. Marco fed him the pudding.

"Well?" Star questioned.

The blue man gulped down the pudding and asked, "What spell did you use?"

"It was supposed to turn him into a werewolf," the princess answered.

"You already know what how to reverse transformation spells," Glossaryck said. "Just find the inverse spell using the formula I gave you."

"I forgot the words!" Star exclaimed. "And I forgot to write them down! Isn't there another way?"

The genie-like creature sighed, "There are two ways to reverse a transformation spell. The first and simplest way is to create an inverse spell. The second way is to find the Tuft Fruit in the Forest of Certain Death."

"Tuft Fruit?" Marco asked. Glossaryck opened his mouth. Marco groaned and fed the magic master some more pudding.

"The Tuft Fruit is a legendary fruit that can cure any magical ailment in the world," Glossaryck explained. "It looks like a blue tulip. To reverse the spell, you must consume it. It's quite disgusting, so I'd rather wait for the princess to remember the words."

"Where in the forest is it?" Star asked.

"Nobody knows for sure," the blue magic man answered. "Ever since I've been alive, there have only been two sightings of it. The first one was in the far east of the forest and the second one was in the far west."

"All right, got it."

Before Star could close the book, Glossaryck held up his hand and said, "Hold on, I do believe there is still pudding inside the cup that needs to go into my stomach." The two teenagers grimaced and Marco continued to feed Glossaryck pudding until there was no more in the cup.

At night, Star decided to call her mother via the mirror.

An image of Queen Butterfly appeared on the screen. "Yes, Star?" Moon asked.

"Hi, mom," the princess greeted with a fake large smile. "Sorry to be calling you so late but I was wondering if you knew anything about the Tuft Fruit."

"The Tuft Fruit? Hmm, I suppose I do know a bit about it. May I ask why you're interested in it?"

"Well, I was practicing some transformation spells and Glossaryck happened to mention it," Star explained. "He didn't say much about it and I wanted to know more."

Moon seemed to purse her lips before saying, "All right, what do you want to know?"

"Glossaryck said that the fruit has only been found twice, is that true?"

"No, the fruit is quite common in the Forest of Certain Death. The real trouble is trying to get through the tufts that guard it. That's also how the fruit got its name. They're small enough to hide in the grass undetected until you get too close to the fruit. Many adventurers were chased away. But nobody wanted to tell anyone they were defeated by something so small and so they said that they couldn't find it instead."

"Ah." Star nodded.

"Is there anything else you wanted to know?"

"Can the fruit really reverse a transformation?"

"Yes, by consuming it," Moon confirmed. "It can also remedy just about any other magical inflictions as well."

"Is it as bad tasting as Glossaryck said it was?"

"It… is quite bitter. There's a reason it's listed as the _last_ way to get rid of any magical ailment, barring curses and death magic, of course."

"Okay, I think that's enough," Star said. "Goodnight, mom." She was about to close the mirror when her mother said something.

"Oh, Star, before I forget, I'm coming for a visit tomorrow to see how much you've improved on your magic."

"What?" the princess exclaimed. "But, but, I haven't improved a whole lot yet!"

"Even so, there is still some improvement. I want to see how proficient you are in each field so I can determine what your next steps should be."

"Aren't you busy with other stuff?"

"That's true," Moon nodded. "That's why I'll be coming over during the night, about seven. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Star." The mirror turned off and Star grabbed her hairs in panic. What would her mother think about her misusing a spell and turning her friend into a monster? A grim thought entered her head. What if her mother or her mother's guards thought Marco was a real monster and killed him before she could explain? There was no time to wait for her to remember the words. The Tuft Fruit was the only solution to this problem and it had to be obtained by sundown tomorrow. She opened a portal to the Mewnian library and looked for books about the fruit.

….

She went back to her room at one o'clock. Setting an alarm for seven, she flopped onto the bed and fell fast asleep.

* * *

The next day, Marco was awakened by Star, who had a large backpack with her. She was wearing some strange outfit that had various shades of green with leaves attached to it. In addition, she was some paint on her face with the same colors as the outfit. It was never a good sign when Star wasn't wearing any of her casual outfits. The teenage boy yawned and looked at his friend in confusion. He turned his head towards the digital clock on the nightstand to his right and saw that it was eight o' clock.

"Come on Marco! We don't have all day!" Star threw the blanket off Marco. She then grabbed his left arm and pulled him into a sitting position.

"Wha?" Marco asked as he was pulled upwards. "Star, what are you doing?"

"We need to go into the Forest of Certain Death to get the Tuft Fruit," Star said. "And we need to do it before it gets dark because that's when the nasty monsters come out." She pulled out a map and shoved it into Marco's face. "The two sightings of the fruit are here and here." She pointed at the far east and west spots of the forest on the map. "And that's a really long way from the entrance so we need to hurry!"

Marco yawned and stretched. "We can't we just use the dimensional scissors to go into where the Tuft Fruit is?"

Star blinked. "What?"

"Dimensional scissors can be used to go anywhere, right? So why can't we used them to teleport into the forest and save time?"

"Because there are monsters that wait near interdimensional portals to swallow them up," the princess answered. "Don't you think I would've already considered that?" In truth, she didn't even consider it, but was glad that she remembered that little piece of information.

Many travelers and princesses and queens once used the scissors to get into the forest quicker in search of the Tuft Fruit. Eventually, the monsters of the forest got smarter and started to set traps at common portal spots. They devoured anyone who was unfortunate enough to be trapped. Scissors were never used to go into the forest ever again. Nobody knows for sure if those traps were still there and nobody was willing to take the risk.

Marco sighed, "Can I at least eat breakfast first?" Star pushed him off the bed.

"You could've already eaten if you didn't talk so much," she said. "Now go!"

Right after Marco walked out of the bathroom, Star shoved two pieces of French toast into his mouth.

"No time!" she exclaimed. She cut open a portal, grabbed Marco, and the two went in. They arrived at the entrance of the forest. Marco began to chew on the toast, holding the remainder of what he couldn't fit into his mouth. He stared at the forest. The brightness at the entrance completely disappeared where the trees began. It was still bright enough inside that you could see everything, but it was dark enough that anything could sneak up on you if it tried. Star. being in a hurry that he'd never seen before, interrupted his thoughts.

"Marco, eat faster!" she looked at him with exasperation. He stuffed down the remaining toast and the two went into the forest.

….

It was now late in the afternoon, four o'clock to be exact. The two teenagers' feet were in pain from all the walking. Marco felt like giving up. Star, on the other hand, kept on going, saying that the day would've been a waste if they didn't get the fruit. The journey felt boring and tedious. Not to say that it was uneventful - there were a few encounters with the creatures of the forest. Unlike Ludo's minions, these monsters were a lot more resilient and took a longer time to fight. Those monsters were the main reason Marco and Star were so exhausted. Some of the creatures looked like they were straight out of mythology. There was a lion with a scorpion tail, a small dragon-like creature that spit out acid instead of fire, and there was even a hydra the size of a pig. Marco and Star didn't fight it, but there was a big octopus that resided inside a lake. Its tentacles grabbed anything that was unfortunate enough to get close to it. For some strange reason, it reminded him of the anime Ferguson showed him two days ago.

Speaking of fighting, Marco was getting used to his new body. In fact, he felt faster and stronger in the monster form. He refrained himself from being too attached to it, with Monster Arm being a grim reminder of what could happen.

As Marco followed Star, she held out her right arm in front of him and both stopped in their tracks. She turned her right hand so the palm faced the ground and lowered the hand. Marco, seeing her slowly descending to the ground, followed her actions.

She pointed at a place in front. "Do you see it?" she whispered. He looked at the general vicinity and squinted his eyes. He looked a bit to the left and saw it. There it was, the Tuft Fruit, the thing they walked in the forest for hours on end to get. It was exactly as Glossaryck had described it, a blue tulip.

"Then let's get it!" Marco whispered enthusiastically.

"Not yet," Star said. "There are tufts lying around."

"Tufts?"

"The Tuft Fruit is called that because it's guarded by tufts," Star explained. "The fruit isn't that hard to find. The real challenge is having to get pass the tufts."

Marco looked at the fruit and the surrounding area. "I don't see them."

"They hide in the grass." The grass near the fruit was about one foot tall.

"It they're that small, then why are they a problem?" Marco asked. As if the heavens themselves wanted to show him the answer, an upright lizard moved near the fruit. Out from the grass jump out what Marco assumed to be a tuft. It looked like a small pig with tusks and sharp teeth. The tuft, although smaller than the lizard, jumped up and snarled at the intruder. About five more of the small creatures joined it, surrounding the lizard. Together, they jumped and tried to bit the invader. In just a few seconds, the lizard was scared off.

"That's why," Star commented. After seeing that display of strength, Marco's thoughts began to drift to a nature documentary he had watched. An animal, like the tuft - in size and ferocity - would try to fight anything it saw.

' _What was its name?_ ' he asked himself. He internally shook his head. Now was not the time to think about other things. A way to get the Tufts away would be to distract or trap them. He didn't know anything about the animals and assumed Star didn't know that much. After all, she would've already been in action. But the one thing that was common to most animals was that the males fought when a….

"That's it!" Marco snapped his fingers.

"Hmm?"

"Star, can you use a transformation spell to turn something into a female tuft?"

"What?" Star asked.

"Most males fight each other for a female in the animal kingdom. Maybe the tufts do something like that. If they get distracted with fighting each other enough, we can grab the fruit and get out."

The princess nodded. "All right, let's try it." She pointed her wand at an unexpected monster and yelled, "Terrific Tuft Transform!" The monster was transformed into a female tuft. The transformation affected more than the physical body, it replaced the monster's brain with one of a tuft's. Therefore, it instinctively moved towards the fruit. The two waited in anticipation as it went closer. To get a better view, they climbed up on a tree. When the transformed tuft did move close enough to the fruit, one of the tufts that was guarding snarled at it. Their plan came crashing down as the other tufts chased the transformed one away.

"Well, now what?" asked Star.

Marco and Star tried out other plans to get the tufts to move away - various food items, even transforming objects into large monsters. However, the tufts never moved away from the fruit, as if they were determined to stay right near it. Marco had another idea. What if….

"What if you transformed an object into the Tuft Fruit?" he asked.

"Marco, that's not funny," Star said. She looked at him with a look that said 'are you kidding me.' "Even if I did, the magical properties wouldn't be there."

"That's not what I meant. The Tufts might divide to move to the fake Tuft Fruit. If there's enough, we can have only one Tuft at a single fruit. We can then quickly take the real fruit."

"Fantastic Fruit Fantasia!" Star yelled. A blade of grass some feet away from the tufts was transformed into something that looked like the real Tuft Fruit. One of the tufts moved to the fake fruit and sniffed it. Afterwards, it moved back to the real fruit. The two teenagers could only stare as another plan failed.

It was now five o'clock. The teenagers up on the tree were running out of ideas. Star wanted to create a dragon, but Marco said that it might crush the fruit. The princess used the spell, "Maple Syrup Quicksand," but the syrup went around the area where the tufts were. Marco came up with the theory that the Tuft Fruit provided magical protection as well, giving a reason for the Tufts to stay near it and why their fake fruit didn't work. It would have been more fascinating if they weren't running out of time.

It was now six o'clock. The two were spending most of their time thinking about ideas and then throwing them out the window as they were just variations of the failed ones. Slowly, the clock counted down the remaining time. The sun was going to set at six thirty sharp as it did every day on Mewni. Star, as Marco noticed, was getting more jittery as the seconds went by.

"Don't worry so much," he tried to calm her down. "We can always just come back tomorrow. There're no more portal traps so we can use the scissors too." The princess grabbed the collar of his shirt.

"You don't understand!" she yelled. "We need to change you back by seven!"

"Why, is something going to happen to me?"

"I, I don't know. Maybe?" Star chewed on her wand.

"Star?" Marco asked slowly.

"Listen, what's important is that we change you back before the sun goes down. So, stop asking questions and start thinking!" But there were no more ideas that were thought out.

At six thirty, the sun began its descent across the horizon. Finally, Star gave up. She cut a portal straight to the Diaz home and the two went it. As the sun's light died down, ferocious beasts awakened.

* * *

The doorbell of the Diaz's home rang.

"Coming!" shouted Rafael Diaz from the kitchen. Making his way to the door, he opened it, revealing Queen Moon Butterfly and King River Butterfly. "Oh, hello! You are Star's parents, yes?"

"Yes," answered River. "We're here to visit her."

"Speaking of which, where is she?" asked Moon.

"Probably out having fun," answered Rafael. "I haven't seen her at all today. But don't worry, she's always back by dinnertime. Please, come in."

The royalty stepped inside the house.

"Are you going to stay for dinner?" inquired Mr. Diaz.

"Well…." Moon began.

"Of course, we will!" River replied with enthusiasm. "It would be rude to refuse a dinner invitation, isn't that right dear?"

"Yes, it is," the queen answered. "I suppose we'll be staying for dinner."

"Great!" said Rafael. "What is your favorite type of food?"

* * *

Star and Marco exited the portal at the upper hallway. The princess heard the voice of her mother along with both of Marco's parents. She pulled on her hair in frustration and panic. This was something she had been dreading. Marco would have to go downstairs for dinner and everyone would see the transformation. A single voice made its way to her ears and her mind shut down. It was the voice of her father.

She imagined it now, her best friend dying as River saw him and charged as fast as the short man could charge. Her father probably didn't have weapons with him, but he's hunted monsters with his bare hands before. As soon as he sets his eyes on anything that looks like a monster, he goes into a berserker state. Star would not be able to finish a single sentence -no, she wouldn't even be able to utter a word or a syllable - before her father finished killing Marco.

She continued to pull on her hair and went through the numerous spell phrases in her head.

Downstairs, River asked Rafael a question, "Excuse me, may I use your bathroom?"

"Oh, sure," Mr. Diaz nodded. "It's upstairs, the third door to the right."

Star heard footsteps from the stairs. The shadow cast onto the wall showed that it was her father. Her brain threatened to shut down as River went up, step by step. Marco, on the other hand, was looking at Star with concern. He did not recognize the voices besides those of his parents and so he had no idea why Star was so anxious. After all, she was…. Well, she did panic from time to time but he never saw her react this bad before.

The Butterfly family has a move that can be activated with either high amounts of stress or great control: dipping down. As the amount of stress inside Star reached its peak, she instinctively activated the ability.

"Dip down," she whispered. Her eyes and heart marks began to glow; she floated up in the air as Marco watched.

"Star?" he asked with fear. A burst of purple energy came out of the princess. It washed over Marco, reverting the transformation. The scaly skin, the snout, the claws, everything reverted into its original form. Right as River saw the two teenagers, Star went out of the "dipping down" and landed on the ground.

"Oh, hello Star," the king greeted. "Hello to you too, Marco. Your father said that he didn't see the two of you all day. What were you doing?"

"We were, uh, helping me practice magic in a safer area," Star answered with a smile.

"Sounds fun," River nodded. He groaned as he was quickly reminded of his bladder. "Perhaps you can tell us about it at dinner." The king quickly ran into the bathroom and shut the door.

"Star, why is your dad here?" asked Marco. The princess laughed nervously.

* * *

Meaningless Stuff:

The tufts are basically the Honey Badgers of Mewni - fast, ferocious, and small. They deter most people from going close to the Tuft Fruit. Adventurers have said that they couldn't find the fruit rather than telling their defeat at the hands of such a small creature. The Butterfly family records, despite what the adventurers said, tell the full truth.

For some reason, werewolves are not classified as monsters on Mewni and Marco would not be in any danger if he met Star's parents in that form. The worst thing that would happen is Moon being miffed about the improper use of magic.

I don't know if Marco would like to watch nature documentaries but I wrote it in as an excuse.

I always feel like I get lazy at the end of these oneshots.


	10. The Calling part 2

The Calling p. 2

* * *

' _Italicized' ← Thoughts_

'Normal' ← Speaking inside a mind

"Normal" ← Speaking

* * *

Inside the Great Mewni Library, a worker stood up from his chair and stretched. His back bones cracked, relieved of the stress of sitting down. His name was Peter Gray; he was one of the librarians here. He had brown eyes and brown hair with a pale complexion. At the age of twenty-five, he was the youngest person to be working in the library. In fact, he was the youngest person who worked in any library across Mewni. Most people his age were entrepreneurs, trying their best to get rich. But Peter was happy with his job and so he stuck to it.

He grumbled to himself as he made his way to the exit. His coworkers turned their heads to watch him leave. It was one of the rarest sights to see Peter leave the library before closing time. The man was known as a dedicated worker that had little time for anything else. Therefore, anything that made Gray leave early must be important. Of course, those claims were wildly exaggerated - he walked from the library to the castle and back all the time. And his coworkers were right, what he was leaving for was important.

Then again, saying that the queen of Mewni was anything less than important might be seen as treason in some circles.

* * *

Marco, Star, Tom, River, and Moon sat around a circular table. The table and chairs were part of a set of furniture created with oak wood. All of them were inside a room reserved for making contracts. The walls were lined with magic to make sure nobody could listen in. Four guards stood at the door, two on the inside and two on the outside. The guards wore steel armor common to knights; their weapon of

On the table were several blank pieces of paper. These papers would be used to detail a contract between Marco, Star, and Tom. The gist of the deal was this: whoever, Tom or Marco, killed Toffee first would become Star's suitor. The official version would be a lot more detailed as to what the rules were, what the conditions of victory were, etc.

The idea was brought up to Queen Moon by Tom, who got the idea by the ghost cowboy living inside Marco's head.

* * *

 _ **Some time ago:**_

A few days after the incident where Marco's body was controlled by Toffee, Marco told Star about the deal he made with the ghost cowboy, Victor Steele. Star was, to say the least, upset. She was not upset at the fact the deal was made, but because she had been unable to save Marco before it.

Marco tried to comfort her, "Come on Star, it's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" the princess asked in a raised voice.

"Well, we're still alive, aren't we?"

"Marco, you… I…." Star was at a loss for words. The image of her best friend wielding a knife against her was deep in her mind.

Marco pulled her into a hug. "What matters is that we survived and we're okay."

While the two were in top shape physically after the incident, mental scars remained. Star became afraid of two things: not being to save Marco and having her best friend being mind-controlled again. Marco became afraid of losing control of his own body, being able to only watch as his body did things against his will - to his friends and family or any innocent person. The two wanted to tell someone about their fears, but could never find the voice to. They couldn't even tell each other.

Star returned Marco's hug and sniffed as tears threatened to break out.

"What about Toffee?" she asked.

"Uh…." Marco trailed off as the cowboy relayed some information to him. "Victor really only wants me to be close to Toffee when he dies. It's not like I have to go alone or anything."

The princess frowned. "I thought he wants revenge. You have to kill Toffee, right? Why else would he give you an ability?"

Marco shrugged. "He says he doesn't care. It doesn't matter if I kill Toffee or not, just that I be there when he dies."

"How do you know that?"

"Funny thing, Victor now lives in my head."

"What?"

Another few days later, Victor brought up the topic of training to Marco. Marco's new ability, Hellfire Bullets, was powerful, but it was useless if he couldn't hit anything. The first stage was hitting stationary targets.

* * *

Marco and Star stood at the backyard of the Diaz's home. There were some new additions to the garden created for Marco's training. A smaller fence stood in the middle; on it were bottles lined up. Behind the fence was a shield spell to prevent any mishaps when Marco fired. The fence and bottles were created using Star's magic. Victor thought up of having Star create the objects as the training was going to take a while and time should not be wasted on finding empty bottles or cans. In addition to helping Marco train, Star went into overdrive practicing her magic.

Marco stood in front of the fence. Star was beside him looking through her giant book of spells.

'Okay, now shoot,' Victor ordered Marco. It was always a weird experience for Marco whenever Victor "spoke." His ears did not hear anything and the voice travelled directly into his brain. It felt more like a thought rather than someone speaking to him. The only reason Marco knew it was Victor speaking to him was the voice. And whenever Marco tried to imagine Victor saying something ridiculous, the former cowboy would complain.

' _Shoot?_ ' Marco asked in a thought. The teenage boy found out that he could communicate to the ghost using his own thoughts a few days later. Victor didn't know that was possible either. The two of them had talked to each other via dreams before. When Marco fell asleep, Victor would show up. This was taxing to Marco as his brain could not fully rest, resulting in him falling asleep in some classes.

'Yes, shoot,' Victor sighed. 'What are you waiting for?'

' _How do you shoot?_ '

'What?' the cowboy asked in a voice of disbelief.

' _I don't know how to shoot._ '

Victor could only stay silent. How could Marco not know how to shoot? He… oh. Victor slapped himself on the forehead.

' _Right, you need to know how to shoot a gun before aiming one,_ ' he thought to himself.

'Well, I don't know how either,' he told Marco. 'How did you use it the first time?'

' _I… it just came naturally,_ ' Marco thought. ' _My body moved on its own._ '

'Well, that doesn't help at all. What else did you feel?' Silently, Victor sighed. Helping Marco was going to take longer than anticipated.

About a week later, Victor and Marco figured out the trigger for the ability. All that the teenage boy needed to do was imagine fire swirling at his fingertips. The cowboy would never show it, but he was disappointed at the lost time. From time to time, he would compare Marco to his protégé. How long they took to complete a certain part of their training, how hard they worked, etc. He shook those thoughts away. After all, Diaz just went through a traumatic experience. The young man didn't need an old man yelling at him to train harder.

* * *

Once Marco mastered aiming at stationary targets with different distances and sizes, the training went on to hitting moving targets.

A series of wooden objects moved back and forth, with Star's magic again. The shield at the back was greatly expanded to account for shots flying from various angles. Marco had to stay stationary for this, but he could crouch, jump, lean, and-slash-or move his arms around.

As the training went on, Victor noticed something - Marco wasn't training hard enough. At least, he wasn't training as hard as Victor would've liked.

'You'd think having to face off against Toffee would be a good enough motivator,' the cowboy mumbled to himself. Marco not having enough training could prove fatal when he met Toffee again. While the teenager was moving through the practices at a good speed, there was a certain lack of motivation that could be seen on his face, as if he was tired of the whole thing.

Victor looked at the two friends. He could already tell that they were more than "just friends" by looking at their actions. Best friends did not cuddle up with each other under a blanket. If they were only friends, then he was a lawyer from England.

' _This is special kind of denial at work._ ' A thought entered his mind. The princess could be a good motivator. But how?

'Hmm,' he grumbled to himself. 'Toffee is an important target that needs to be eliminated…. Maybe, if Marco is the one to kill him, then the queen would allow a special favor? Like… like being the suitor to the princess?'

The cowboy nodded to himself. It was the perfect plan to motivate Marco as well as getting him together with the Butterfly. The fact that they weren't already together was driving him a bit crazy. He didn't like to meddle in others' lives, but this was something special. Besides, there was a piece of red line that connected them to each other.

' _Reminds me of something from the oriental. The red string of something?_ '

His thoughts went to thinking about how to make his new plan work. The queen would need a lot of convincing for something like being the princess's suitor for killing someone. Eliminating high value targets usually wouldn't do it, but Toffee was a special case. In addition, convincing Marco would take a long time as well. The boy would run the plan with the princess and that would cause a big mess he did not want to be a part of.

' _What if someone else did this for me?_ ' He recalled a demon by the name of Tom Lucitor. To give Marco his new demon power, Victor had to make a deal with Tom. Essentially, Tom spied on Marco and Star via Victor. That was why Victor never left the imagined bar create by Marco's mind. It might've been boring and lonely, but he was not going to give in to some demon's demands, no sirree. But this was where the deal with Tom would come in handy.

'And _demon boy's got a thing for the Butterfly._ ' There might be some competition, but that was fine. Victor stood up from the stool he was on and walked "outside" to where he could clearly see the real world on some panels which represented Marco's vision being processed by the brain. The cowboy didn't know if the demon had heard him when he was muttering out his plan, but the Underworld prince was going to hear him loud and clear this time.

Victor cleared his throat in preparation for his speech. He slapped himself on the knee and exclaimed, 'You've done it again, Victor, a genius plan to get Marco and Star together! Marco can get the queen to create a contract wherein if Marco manages to kill Toffee, then he can be Star's suitor. The queen must agree; the lizard has been a menace that has haunted Mewni for decades. In fact, the queen would be overly ecstatic in giving out any award to anyone who can kill Toffee. Now, all I have to do is to get Marco to go to Mewni tomorrow. A contract to make sure that Marco's the only one who does this would be nice.'

' _Victor?_ ' Marco asked. ' _What are you doing?_ ' The teenager had been focused on shooting the moving targets, but noticed the cowboy's talking. When Victor was talking to him, the voice was louder than this time.

'Oh, nothing,' Victor answered. 'I was just reciting an old poem. And I felt like going outside of the pub for a while, it does get boring in there. Sorry if I disturbed you.'

' _It's fine,_ ' Marco thought. ' _What was poem about?_ '

'I can't seem to remember. Anyways, I'll go back and let you do your thing. I have something to tell you later when you have time.'

' _All right._ '

* * *

During the evening, before went back to sleep, Marco laid on his bed. His eyes were opened and his breath was slow. Anyone that looked at him would've thought he had fallen asleep with his eyes open.

Inside his mind, there was a pub. The counter, the shelves, the stools, the tables, the chairs were all there. The entire place was barren save for a single person, Victor. The ghost cowboy sat on a chair that faced the entrance. When Marco went in, Victor motioned for him to sit on the seat across.

'So, what did you want to talk about?' Marco questioned.

'I want a bit of a favor,' Victor replied. 'I was wondering if we could go to Mewni tomorrow to see my comrades' graves.'

'Sure, I guess. But I don't know if Star can get permission to go back that fast.'

Victor blinked. 'What?'

'Star's here because she has to train for her magic,' Marco explained. 'She has to have permission from her mother to go back. We can't just sneak into a cemetery without being seen. Do you know where your friends are buried.' Victor shook his head. 'I don't know how soon we can get the permission plus we might have to explain this whole thing to the queen and I don't think Star wants to do that.'

As Marco explained everything, a single thought ran through the cowboy's head, ' _Fuck._ '

However, there was still a chance that the Butterfly princess would be informed of a contract by the demon. Victor Steele, ghost cowboy sheriff, never thought he would ever pray for a demon to succeed at anything. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

' _This is the last time I'll ever interfere with anyone's lives ever again,_ ' he vowed.

* * *

The next day, Star received a message from her mother.

"Call incoming from Mom," the mirror announced. Star and Marco were inside of the princess's room now. Marco's parents were mostly home today, which meant that the two would have to train inside. The Diaz's did not need to know about what happened to their son.

The mirror rang as Star went up to it and pressed a button. The screen changed to an image of Queen Moon Butterfly.

"Hi, mom," Star greeted.

"Hello, Star," Moon greeted back. "I know this may be sudden, but I need you to come back to Mewni as soon as possible."

"What?" the princess asked with a confused face.

"It won't take a long time. You'll go back to Earth when this matter is resolved."

"What matter?"

"I'll explain it to you when you get here. Until then." The mirror's screen turned to its natural reflective surface.

"Huh," Marco mumbled.

"Well, I've got to go now," Star said. "The training area has everything, right?" The training station that Marco used was now inside the room, a smaller version of course. Besides the change in size, everything remained the same: moving wooden structures at various speeds and a giant shield behind it all.

"Wait!" Marco grabbed her hand. "Can I come with you?" Star looked at him strangely. "Victor was talking about how he wanted to see his comrade's grave. I just need to go to Mewni and ask some people where his friends got buried. I won't be a bother to whatever you're going to be busy with."

"All right, I guess." Star opened a portal directly to the Mewnian castle and the two went in.

The exit of the portal was where Moon and Tom were, inside of a small meeting room. Moon's right eyebrow rose when she saw Marco.

Star immediately saw her mother's expression and tried to come up with an explanation, "He's here for uh…."

"I'm here for a research report that I'm doing for a school project," Marco explained. "Sorry if I'm interrupting anything." He looked at Tom suspiciously. He didn't know that much about the demon, but he was sure that the Underworld prince could not be trusted, especially because of the stories Star told.

"What kind of research project would require coming to Mewni?" Moon asked.

"There was a book about where a group of humans from Earth made contact with Mewnians decades ago. It also reported that the people volunteered to fight against Toffee. Apparently, they all died in the war. I was hoping to find their graves to confirm the story."

"Really, Diaz, you're going to make that excuse?" Tom asked. "The both of us know what you're really here for. I'm sorry to say that I got to it first."

"What are you talking about?" Marco asked with a guarded look. He didn't know what Tom was up to, but he was not going to fall for it.

"There's no use in hiding it, you're here to make that deal, aren't you?" Tom turned to the queen. "Your highness, would you please tell why Star had to come here? I already know that Marco knows."

Star looked at Marco, who shrugged.

"Tom has come here with an offer: he will kill Toffee and in exchange, he becomes Star's suitor," Moon explained.

Lucitor interjected, "I was thinking about it being a closed thing so that nobody else could interfere, but then I thought about how unfair it would be to not let Marco have a chance. So, how about it, Diaz, want to make this a competition between the two of us?"

'Do it,' Victor said. 'He's not bluffing. And this is the perfect excuse to kill the damned lizard.'

' _I don't know about this,_ ' Marco thought. His training had only been for a few weeks. Was he ready to go out there and kill Toffee?

'What do you think will happen if demon boy here kills Toffee?' Victor rebutted. 'The contract between the two of us will fail and Star will have to marry him. If the contract fails, the both of us will be stuck in hell and we'll be forever taunted by that fucking demon in front of us.'

' _I thought I didn't have to kill Toffee directly._ '

'Still, do you want _him_ to be your friend's husband?'

A few seconds later, Marco responded, "I'll do it. But I won't need the 'becoming Star's suitor' part. Killing Toffee and stopping Tom is good enough for me." The demon scowled at him.

Victor sighed. His plan fell apart a bit, but at least the boy would have proper motivation. ' _Time to up the training._ '

* * *

And so, River joined them in the meeting room as they all waited for the contract overseer to arrive. A contract overseer is a neutral member who writes up a contract between two or more parties with binding agreements. The more important contracts use Blood magic to ensure nobody breaks the rules. The parties sign the contract using their own blood and the overseer performs a spell. The spell causes anyone who signed the contract to be unable to betray the agreements.

Peter Gray was a Blood Magic Contract Overseer. The part-time librarian was a government officiated overseer. What that meant was he had signed a blood contract which stated he would always remain neutral and fair to all parties, no matter who it may be. He wasn't just a contract overseer, he and his family took care of the most important contracts in Mewni. It was a job of high honor.

Gray walked down the hall towards the meeting room with a slight frown. Away were his clothes he wore at the library, replaced with a blue formal outfit. He never liked the outfit he was forced to wear, so stuffy and itchy. He proposed that he could wear the suit and tie, a formal outfit he had seen on the Earth dimension. It was rejected since the Mewnians thought it looked ridiculous.

The overseer stepped in front of the meeting room door. The guards on the sides opened the entrance and Peter walked in. When he was inside, the guards on the inside closed the door.

Gray bowed and said, "Your majesty, how may I be of service today?" The greeting was meaningless, everyone knew why he was here.

"Mister Gray, you are here to be the overseer of a proposed blood contract," Moon said. River's and Tom's eyes widened. "Prince Tom here wishes to kill a Septarian by the name of Toffee. In exchange for this deed, he would become the suitor of my daughter, Star Butterfly. He has invited a person from the Earth dimension, Marco Diaz, to take part in this, creating a competition. Mister Diaz agreed to take part, however, he rejected the award of becoming the suitor of my formerly mentioned daughter."

Moon and Peter had to do this exchange every single time for any contract. Every single line had to be spelled out with extreme precision to make sure all parties knew what the actual agreement entailed. It was boring, horribly formal, and mentally exhausting.

"As you wish," Peter replied. He took his seat in between Marco and Tom.

"Now then, gentlemen," he addressed the young men to his sides. "Do any of you have any pressing matters in between four to six hours from now? Because we may be here for a while."

"It takes that long?" Marco asked.

"It may be shorter or it may take longer depending on how many agreements and disagreements that may occur. We've found that contracts usually take about that long to be written up and signed. Any more questions?"

Marco shook his head.

"Good," Peter said. "Now then, let's go over the specifics of the contract. Prince Tom of the Underworld hereby agrees…"

* * *

 _ **Useless Trivia:**_

Peter Gray comes from a family of government officiated Blood Contract Overseers. He works part-time in the library because he's bored most of the time. In addition, the library is his peaceful haven, where people are required to be quiet.

Blood magic is derived from spells used by the Underworld, with all the nasty parts removed, of course.


	11. Ranma Crossover

Ranma ½ x SVTFOE Crossover

For further explanation of the characters, see Ranma 1/2

* * *

At the age of fourteen, the princess of the Butterfly family is given a wand. This wand isn't any wand, it is the wand that the Butterfly family has used since the creation of Mewni. The current princess, Star Butterfly, was waiting for this time in anticipation. The ceremony of passing down the wand went off without a hitch (except for the whole 'barging in on a warnicorn' thing). That is, until an unwanted surprise reared its head.

"An engagement?" Star asked.

"Yes," River nodded. "A starving man and his son was walking through the streets of Mewni. The man was begging me for food and made a bargain with me: food and shelter in exchange for his son to marry my daughter. He said that he was training his son to become the greatest martial artist in the world. I made the deal, thinking that he was obviously delirious from not having enough food."

"So, you took advantage of a poor man, is that what you're saying?" Moon interrogated with an icy tone.

The king looked at his wife and quickly backpedaled. "No, no, no," he quickly said while waving his hands in front of himself. "He wouldn't take the food I had until I agreed to his deal. I was only trying to make sure he and his son didn't die."

"And so, the king of Mewni decided to marry our daughter to a peasant." Moon rolled her eyes.

"In my defense, I didn't think he'd go through with it. It was only yesterday I received a letter from the man saying that said he and his son were coming here."

"Who's the man, anyways?"

"His name is Genma and his son is Ranma," River answered. "Don't worry, Ranma is fourteen as well, just like our daughter."

"Hey, hold on!" Star exclaimed. "I'm not just going to marry some random guy that I don't even know!"

"Yes," Moon nodded. "And besides, he's a peasant. Marrying someone like that into the royal family is unacceptable."

"Pfft, that's what everybody said about me and yet here we are," River waved off his wife's concerns. "And Star, you're not marrying him just yet. It's an engagement - we're going to see if the two of you are compatible or not. If you like him, then you can get married to him. If not, then you can break up with him."

"Uh huh," Star mumbled with a small grin that slowly grew into a smile.

The king sighed, "But at least try to get along with him."

"Sure…."

"Star-"

Moon interrupted River. "While I don't like it one bit, a deal is a deal. Star, promise us that you'll at least try to get along with him." Mother and daughter stared into each other's eyes in a contest of wills. Some seconds later, Star folded.

"All right," Star mumbled. "I'll try to be friendly with him."

"Promise us," Moon said.

Star groaned. "I promise I'll be nice. But as soon as he starts to act like Tom, I'm breaking up with him."

River said, "That's all that I ask for."

"Oh, and River, how did the man know where you live?" Moon asked.

"... I don't know."

 **OOOOOOOOOO**

Six years ago, on Earth, River, Genma, and Ranma were eating together. Genma Saotome was a fat, bald man who wore glasses along with a karate gi. He was of Japanese descent. Genma's eight-year-old son, Ranma, had black hair which was tied in a ponytail. Ranma was also wearing a karate gi.

The bald martial artist was begging for food on the streets when River was passing by. Wanting to help the poor man and his son, the king took them into a restaurant. King Butterfly travelled through many different dimensions to have a walk in order to clear his mind. Mewni was great and all, but it could get boring with the amount of corn fields the kingdom had. Not to mention his subjects could instantly recognize him and then tell their complaints to him. It was by coincidence that he landed on Earth.

The restaurant was called The Sugar Night; it was a dim sum place.

The fat man and his son stuffed down the food with vigor. Not wanting to be outdone, River also ate at a rapid pace. After they were done, Genma patted his stomach.

"Thank you, good man," he said. "You don't know how much my son and I have been starving for the past few days. People here are less than gracious."

"May I ask why you and your son are on the streets?" River asked. Not having enough money for food was something unthinkable to the king. Even as a peasant in Mewni, it was guaranteed that you would have a job. It may not have paid well, but at least everyone could afford food, shelter, and water.

Genma gulfed down the red bean soup in front of him before answering. "My son and I are on a training journey. I'm going to make sure that my son becomes the greatest martial artist in the world!"

"A martial artist?"

"Yep," the bald man nodded with a proud face and a fist to his heart. "And you're going to do it, right Ranma?"

"Yeah!" the small boy exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air.

"What's a martial artist?" River asked. "I assume it has to do something with this thing you call 'martial art.'"

"You've never heard of martial arts?" Genma asked with slightly widened eyes. "Where have you been living all your life?" His surprised expression slowly turned into one of laughter.

"Ah hah," he laughed. "You're playing a joke on me. Good one." He slapped River's back.

"I wasn't joking," River replied. "I've genuinely never heard of martial arts until this moment." His bald companion looked at him for a few seconds before realizing he wasn't lying.

"By the gods, you aren't kidding!" Genma exclaimed. "How do you not know of martial arts? They are the revered fighting techniques of Asia!"

"Oh, fighting," the king nodded. "I see now, you want your son to be the greatest fighter of all time."

After everything was done, River paid the bill with his dimensional credit card. He invited Ranma and Genma for dinner hours later.

This restaurant was called The Silk Eats; it served Asian cuisines from various countries and cultures. When they finished eating, Ranma was fast asleep and the two men decided to end the night with a drink.

Buying a large quantity of liquor and renting a cheap motel, River and Genma opened up to each other even more under the influence.

"Your son's a wonderful boy," River said. "I have a daughter just like him, always so full of energy."

"It that so?" Genma hiccupped. "How old is she?"

"She's about eight years old," the king answered. Even when drunk, Genma was a sly bastard who took advantage of other people's' kindness.

 _This man seems well off_ , the bald man thought. His brain had already thought of robbing River when he saw the gold pieces. _If I can get him to agree to marry his daughter to Ranma, then we'll have a free meal ticket for the rest of our lives. But the Tendo-Saotome agreement must come first. Hmm…. I'll just have him make the agreement as a safety measure for my future._

"Well, what do you know, my son just turned eight last month!" Saotome laughed. "Maybe we should have our two children play with each other one day."

"Hmm… that would be nice," River agreed.

"Oh, I just realized that I can't pay you back for your hospitality," Genma exclaimed with fake shock.

"Don't worry about it," River waved it off. "I'm just glad to be able to help you and your son."

"You are truly too kind. But I cannot let your generosity go unrewarded. How about I let my son be engaged to your daughter? My son will become the greatest martial artist in the world, don't you want to have a reliable man take care of your daughter? There are many thieves and brutes on there who will take advantage of her."

"I don't know…. I don't think my wife will like it if I just went and promised to have my daughter marry a person she's never met."

"Think of this as insurance," Genma said. "If your daughter hasn't found anyone to marry, then she can be with my son. And besides, you're not marrying off your daughter. We'll make sure they get along with one another before that happens. Don't you think they would make a good couple?"

River quietly considered the offer. From what he'd seen from Ranma, the boy had the same amount of energy as Star. Considering everything, Genma was right the two might be a good fit.

"All right," the king nodded. "But if my daughter doesn't like him, I'll call it off."

"But of course," Genma agreed. He raised his shot glass. "Let's a have drink. To our children's futures!"

"To our children's futures!" The glasses clinked as they collided and the men downed their drinks.

In the morning, River woke up alone in the motel room. He groaned as the migraine from last night's drinking hit him in full force. Besides him was a piece of paper. He grabbed it and read its contents.

 _To River:_

 _I'm sorry that to leave you without saying anything, but my son and I need to continue with our training trip. We thank you for your generosity yesterday and for allowing us to have the remainder of your money. I'll be sure to repay you back someday. Oh, and to make sure you don't forget, on the back of the page are the details concerning the engagement of my son and your daughter._

 _Genma Saotome_

River flipped the page over and there were words written about their drunken agreement. His eyes widened as he realized that he had spent the entire night and part of the day away from Mewni. His wife would not be happy about that, and would be furious about the engagement agreement. He would not be able to deny it, no matter how much he wanted to as his honor did not allow it. But his wife did not have to know about this. Besides, the man might not even be able to find him. After all, how could a poor man be able to obtain dimensional scissors _and_ figure out he was on Mewni.

After convincing himself it was not a problem, River folded the paper and put it into his pocket. With his dimensional scissors, he opened a portal back home and went inside it. A silent prayer was whispered as he saw his wife approaching.

 **OOOOOOOOOO**

Currently, at night

A busty redhead and a panda was camped on the outskirts of Mewni. But do not be fooled, they were Ranma and Genma Saotome, respectively. A few weeks earlier, they had trained at the cursed springs of Jusenkyo. Whoever falls into the springs are cursed to take the forms of whatever drowned in the springs. Cold water activates the curse and hot water reverses it. Ranma had fallen into the spring of drowned girl and Genma had fallen into the spring of drowned panda.

Ranma's female form had red hair instead of the usual black. The hair was tied in a pigtail now instead of the ponytail. She wore a Chinese style long sleeved clothing, black pants, and black slip on shoes. While the panda was technically naked, the clothes would reform itself on Genma when the curse was reversed.

Ranma grumbled as the campfire heated the water. Somehow, Genma had acquired dimensional scissors while gambling against an interdimensional traveler. Of course, the bald man had cheated, but a win was a win. The loser was also able to tell him where to find River.

The kettle began to whistle and Ranma poured the water over him. The redhead turned into a young, muscular man.

The panda growled and grabbed the pot. It tried to poured the contents on itself, but nothing came out.

"Sorry pops," the man said with a shrug. "Guess you'll have to stay in that form a bit longer."

The panda threw the pot and it hit Ranma's head.

'Refill the pot, boy!' was written on a wooden sign. Where the panda had grabbed the sign from was a mystery. Genma turned the sign around. 'And hurry up!' The sign flipped around again. 'We need to be presentable for the family we're going to visit.'

Ranma rubbed the minor injury on his head and rolled his eyes.

"All right, all right," he mumbled.

 **OOOOOOOOOO**

In the morning, Star was visibly agitated as she ate breakfast. All the men who've tried to court her so far had been snobs who expected her to behave as a perfect princess. She thought Tom had been different, but his short temper quickly ruined the relationship. She didn't care who this 'Ranma' was, but she wasn't going to pretend to be someone she wasn't.

"River, do you know when Saotome and his son will arrive?" Moon asked.

"No, he just said he would be here by today," the king answered.

"Well, call me when they're here," Star commented as she got up from the table.

"Where are you going?" Moon questioned.

"I'll be in the Forest of Certain Death. Call me when they're here." The door of the dining room slammed shut. River and Moon shared a look.

 **OOOOOOOOOO**

Near said forest, a young girl and a panda were fighting each other.

"I don't believe this!" Ranma shouted.

The panda growled and bought up a sign. 'It was for the good of the two of us!'

"Yeah right," the girl retorted. "More like you only want to feed your own stomach."

Genma leaped at Ranma, only to be shot down by a group of fish with horns on their heads.

"Narwhal Blast!" Star shouted.

The panda landed on the ground in pain along with the narwhals which continued to poke at him.

"Hi, my name's Star," the princess greeted the redhead. "What's yours?"

"It's…." Ranma hesitated slightly. He couldn't use his regular name for his girl side. What if someone found out about his curse through that? "It's Ranko."

* * *

AN: I had this idea because Ranma and Star may be a good match. Both like to beat stuff up and Star would be super cool with the curse.


	12. Star Noir

Star Butterfly, Private Detective

* * *

Outside in the streets of Echo Creek, the rained poured down. Luckily, there were barely any thunderstorms that came through. The wind was strong enough to pull the umbrellas of unfortunate people inside out, leaving the men and women unprotected against the harsh downpour.

The name's Butterfly, Star Butterfly. I'm a private detective, solving cases that the cops couldn't even handle even if they tried their best. How come? Because I have connections that they can only dream of having.

My partner's Janna Ordonia, a self-proclaimed mystic. She can talk to spirits of the deceased to give us information. Of course, that was only useful to find where clues were hidden. The world doesn't believe in magic, so conversations between us and the dead could not be used as evidence.

Our agency was called Mewni. We were stationed in Echo Creek, a small town with little trouble thanks to us. Clients from all over the world fly to this location just to have us look at their cases.

However, that peace in this little place could not last as demonstrated by our next case.

In front of me was Jackie Lynn Thomas, an old high school friend of mine. She had a pale complexion. Her hair was platinum blonde with an aqua streak on the left side and her eyes were mint green.

Her face was covered with tears, a far cry from the usual beauty we knew her for.

Marco Diaz, her husband, had gone missing. Without a single trace, he vanished from the town. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the days leading up to his disappearance. One day, he just didn't show up to dinner. Jackie tried calling his cellphone, but nobody picked them up. She went to the police station to report. After a few days, they called to say they could not find him. Missing posters of the beloved man were all over the city. His parents and wife were worried and came to me for help.

The dark and gloomy rains of California only added depression to our moods. Diaz was a reliable man who always helped others. I used to have a crush on him during high school. But he chose Jackie instead. We remained friends throughout this time. He even helped me to boost my business as a detective. Good ol' trusty Diaz.

I internally shook my head. This was no time to be reminiscing. We had to figure out what happened and find him.

"Don't worry Jackie," I tried to comfort her. "We'll make sure he returns to you."

"What if he's dead?" she sobbed out.

I pointed my thumb at Janna. "We'll find out if he's dead or not first. Even if he is dead, we'll make sure to find out exactly what happened."

I stood up from my chair, walked towards her, and put my hand on her left shoulder.

"I know it hurts, but you need to be strong," I said. "We're all saddened by this."

 **OOOOOOOOOO**

Janna and I sat on the ground, a circle with symbols inside sat in between us. This was the ritual for the demon, Tom Lucitor, who admittedly was my ex-boyfriend. Why did I date a literal demon from hell? We've all done stupid things during our rebellious phases in life. I'm sure you have scars or stories to tell from your horrible mistakes of the past.

But enough about me, let's get back to the summoning. Tom, being the prince of the Underworld, can tell us if a person has died or not. We were going to use him to tell us where Marco was and then send him back to hell before he could ask me out.

The candles around the red circular marking were lit.

 _Lavender scented_ , I thought as the scent wafted into my nose.

Janna chanted in an ancient tongue (It wasn't, it was just Tom's cell phone number in Spanish). As she chanted, the red markings grew brighter and brighter until the entire thing burst into flames. A column of fire shot out from the floor and stopped right before the ceiling. It was lucky for us that the smoke detector never went off.

After a few moments, the fire stopped. The red markings were gone, replaced by a smirking demon.

"Hello, Starship," he smiled at me. "Did you miss me?"

"No," I deadpanned. I had already given him another chance when my dreams of being of Marco were crushed. That turned out to be a mistake as well.

"Well, if you're ever feeling lonely…."

"Shut up," I said in a cold tone. "We're only summoning you for a question."

Tom sighed dramatically, "I suppose I'll help you, even if you continue to be so rude to me."

"Fire incident four years ago," I replied. His face tensed. He knew what he had done. Four years ago, he lost his temper inside a movie theater and threw a fireball. Unlike regular fire, hellfire spreads much quicker and burns at a higher temperature. Everyone survived, but some people had injuries they would never recover from. It was unforgivable. During the fire, he even said that he would stop it if I went back to being his girlfriend. Afterwards, I did what any reasonable person would do: I tried to castrate him. To my disappointment, I only got one of his testicles. Ever since then, we've had a strained relationship.

"What do you want?" he asked. Finally, straight to the point.

"We want to know if Marco died or not," Janna responded. Tom's right eyebrow went up. Marco and Tom had a weird friendship. During high school, they were sort of friends and sort of enemies with each other. Of course, the friend part was destroyed after the theater fire. Even so, Diaz stopped me from cutting off Tom's other ball.

"All right," the demon nodded. He closed his eyes and levitated in the air. After a while, he floated back on the ground and opened his eyes.

"Nope," he shook his head. "He hasn't died yet."

"That's all we need to know," I said and looked at Janna.

The mystic nodded and threw bath salts at Tom. The Underworld prince screamed and was gone in a poof. I walked towards the telephone and ringed up Jackie.

"Hello?" she answered.

"This is Star," I said. "Good news, Marco isn't dead. We can start the investigation now."

"Okay," she breathed. "Call me if you manage to find anything."

"Don't worry, we will."

There was more talk of pleasantries and how the Diazes were doing. Afterwards, I sat at my desk and began writing down starting places to investigate.

On the day Marco disappeared, he left his home and went to work. His workplace was the first area to observe. Marco was a PE teacher and a part-time karate instructor at the gym. There were nothing inherently dangerous about those jobs, aside from the usual nagging parents about how perfect their kids were.

Marco had a clean streak about him. He would never cheat on his wife nor would he go anywhere out of the ordinary without telling her first.

I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but the only possible reason for his disappearance was that someone had kidnapped him. But who? And why? These questions gnawed at me as this became more than just another case. This was the search for my best friend and the person or people who may have brought him harm.


End file.
